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Discipleship
Works by G .
Campbell Moroan
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Discipleship
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66
BY ^
Rev. G. Campbell ^prgan
Pastor of New Court Congregational Church
Tollington Park, London
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New York Chicago Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
publishers of Evangelical Literature
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?44560
THE NEW YO^
PUBLIC. LI B^
AS
TILDEN FOUND
R "I 9 1 6
Copyright, 1897,
BY
Fleming H. Revell Company
To my Wife In whose unobtrusive and
consistent discipleship I have found the in-
spiration of service ^ and that sense of ^* sanc-
tuary^^ in the home which has been largely
the strength of service also, — I dedicate this,
my first book, ^\ ] ] > '> -^ ' \>' {
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This booklet is not intended to be a
contribution to theology, nor is it ad-
dressed to theologians as such. Not
that they or their work is undervalued.
They — of varied schools — have placed
the writer under a debt to them that he
is unable to discharge.
It is intended to be, along practical
lines, an aid to the disciples of Jesus,
and that, by endeavoring to show in
some measure, the eminent practicability
of being a Christian, in the power of
the life communicated by and sustained
in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
It is further intended to reveal the
actual effect on this present life, for
ennobling it in all its relations, and
filling it with all joy and beauty, of
7
Author's Note
the ultimate intention of the Master
for all His disciples.
To the glory of God, and the help of
fellow-disciples it is therefore prayer*
fully sent forth on its mission.
G. Campbell Morgan.
New Court Congregational Churchy
London.
CONTENTS
CHAP. FAG*
I. Becoming a Disciple li
II. FiEST Lessons 22
III. The Method of Advancement , , 32
rv. The Disciple at Home , ... 44
V. The Disciple at Business ... 55
YI. The Disciple at Play .... 66
VII. The Disciple as a Friend ... 75
VIII. The Disciple at work foe the
Master 86
IX. The Disciple in Sorrow .... 98
X. The Disciple in Joy 108
XI. The Disciple Going Home . . .117
XII. The Disciple in Gloey , , , , 126
Discipleship
BECOMING A DISCIPLE
At the feet of Jesus
Is the place for me,
There, a humble learner,
Would I choose to be.
—P. P. Bliss.
"Disciples" is the term consistently-
used in the four Gospels to mark the
relationship existing between Christ and
His followers. Jesus used it Himself in
speaking of them, and they in speaking
of each other. Neither did it pass out
of use in the new days of Pentecostal
power. It runs right through the Acts
of the Apostles. It is interesting also
to remember that it was on this wise
that the angels thought and spoke of
these men ; the use of the word in the
days of the Incarnation is linked to the
11
Discipleship
use of the word in the apostolic age by
the angelic message to the women, "Go,
tell His JJisciples and Peter "
(Mark xvi. 7).
It is somewhat remarkable that the
word is not to be found in the Epistles.
This is to be accounted for by the fact
that the Epistles were addressed to
Christians in their corporate capacity
as churches, and so spoke of them as
members of such, and as the " saints "
or separated ones of God. The term
disciple marks an individual relation-
ship, and though it has largely fallen
out of use, it is of the utmost value
still in marking that relationship, exist-
ing between Christ and each single
soul, and suggesting our consequent
position in all the varied circumstances
of everyday living. It is to that study
we desire to come in this series of pa-
pers.
1. The word itself {^.ad-qriji) signifies
a taught or trained one, and gives us
the ideal of relationship. Jesus is the
Teacher. He has all knowledge of the
ultimate purposes of God for man, of
the will of God concerning man, of the
12
Becoming a Disciple
laws of God that mark for man the path
of his progress and final crowning.
Disciples are those who gather around
this Teacher and are trained by Him.
Seekers after truth, not merely in the
abstract, but as a life force, come to Him
and join the circle of those to whom
He reveals these great secrets of all true
life. Sitting at His feet, they learn
from the unfolding of His lessons the
will and ways of God for them ; and
obeying each successive word, they real-
ize within themselves, the renewing
force and uplifting power thereof. The
true and perpetual condition of dis-
cipleship, and its ultimate issue, were
clearly declared by the Lord Himself
"to those Jews which believed on Him."
*'If ye abide in My word, then are ye
truly My disciples ; and ye shall know
the truth, and tlie truth shall make you
free" (John viii. 31).
Before considering the glorious en-
duement the Teacher confers on every
disciple, and the stern requirements that
guard the entrance to discipleship, it is
very important that we should have
clearly outlined in our minds the true
13
Discipleship
meaning of this phase of the relation-
ship, which Jesus bears to His people.
It is not that of a lecturer, from whose
messages men may or may not deduce
applications for themselves. It is not
that of a prophet merely, making a Di-
vine pronouncement, and leaving the is-
sues of the same. It certainly is not
that of a specialist on a given subject,
declaring his knowledge, to the interest
of a few, the amazement of more, and
the bewilderment of most. It is none
of these.
It is that of a teacher — Himself pos-
sessing full knowledge, — bending over
a pupil, and for a set purpose, with
an end in view, imparting knowledge
step by step, point by point, ever work-
ing on toward a definite end. That
conception includes also the true ideal
of our position. We are not casual lis-
teners, neither are we merely interested
hearers desiring information, we are dis-
ciples, looking toward and desiring the
same end as the Master, and therefore
listening to every word, marking every
inflection of voice that carries meaning,
and applying all our energy to realizing
14
Becoming a Disciple
the Teacher's purpose for us. Such is
the ideal.
2. Now let us consider the privileges
that the Teacher confers upon those
who become His disciples.
I. The first is the establishment of
those relations which make it possible
for Him to teach and for us to be
taught. The question of sin must be
dealt with, and that which results from
sin — our inability to understand the
teaching. Christ never becomes a
teacher to those who are living in sin.
Sin as actual transgression in the past,
must be pardoned, and sin as a principle
of revolution within must be cleansed.
So before He unfolds one word of the
Divine law of life, or reveals in any
particular the line of progress. He deals
with this twofold aspect of sin. To the
soul judging past sin, by confessing it
and turning from it. He dispenses for-
giveness, pronouncing His priestly abso-
lution by virtue of His own atonement
on the Cross. To the soul yielded to
Him absolutely and unreservedly, con-
senting to the death of self. He gives
the blessing of cleansing from sin.
15
Discipleship
This statement of His dealing with us is
not intended to mark an order of proce-
dure from pardon to cleansing. It is
rather the declaration of the twofold as-
pect of the first work of Christ for His
disciples, the bestowment of the initial
blessing. In practical experience, men
constantly, though not invariably, and
not necessarily, realize the first-named
first in order. That is the result of the
overwhelming and largely selfish desire
of personal safety, a desire which is the
natural and proper outcome of the di-
vinely imparted instinct of self-preser-
vation. Nevertheless they ought at
once, for the higher reason of God's
glory, to seek to realize the deeper side
of the one blessing, that of cleansing.
But His patience is manifested in our
folly. He forgives and graciously waits.
When we look at Him again and say
*' Master, there is more in Thy cress
than pardon," then He makes us con-
scious of His power to cleanse. Certain
it is, that there can be no real disciple-
ship apart from the realization of the
twofold blessing. Beyond this there
lies the dullness of our understanding,
16
Becoming a Disciple
our inability to comprehend the truths
He declares. This He overcomes by
the gift of the Holy Spirit, who makes
clear to us the teaching of the Master.
What a priceless gift this is. The dull-
est natural intellect may be, and is,
rendered keen and receptive Gbdward,
by the incoming of the Holy Spirit.
So He Himself provides for, and
creates, the relationships of communion
through cleansing, and intelligence
through the indwelling of the Spirit,
which constitute our condition for re-
ceiving what He has to teach.
n. The other great privilege to be
remembered is that the school of Jesus
is a technical school. He provides op-
portunities for us to prove in practical
life the truths He has to declare. This
is a great essential in His method, with
which we shall deal more fully in a sub-
sequent chapter. It is another evidence
of His abounding grace, that the prov-
ing in technical details of the lessons
He teaches, is just as much under His
personal guidance and direction as the
truth in theory is received directly from
Him.
1?
Discipleship
3. Now, upon what personal con-
ditions may I become a disciple ? I
fain would have this enduement of
pardon, cleansing, and illumination.
How may this be ? No school of man
was ever so strictly guarded, so select,
as this, yet none was ever so easy of
access. No bar of race, or color, or
caste, or age stands across the en-
trance. Humanity constitutes the es-
sential claim. And yet, because of the
importance of the truths to be revealed,
and of the necessity for the application
of every power of the being to the
understanding and realization of these
truths, Jesus stands at the entrance,
forbidding any to enter, save upon cer-
tain conditions. Let us hear His three-
fold word. I. "If any man cometh
unto Me, and hateth not his own
father, and mother, and wife, and chil-
dren, and brethren, and sisters, yea,
and his own life also, he cannot be
My disciple" (Luke xiv. 26). IL
** Whosoever doth not bear his own
cross, and come after Me, cannot be
My disciple" (Luke xiv. 27). IH.
** Whosoever he be of you that re-
18
Becoming a Disciple
nounceth not all that he hath, he can-
not BE My disciple " (Luke xiv. 33).
The new relationship must be su-
perior, in the urgency of its claims to
the claim of any earthly relationship ;
it must be considered and answered be-
fore any claims of the self-life. The
Teacher demands that we shall take up
the cross and so follow on, even though
the progress be through pain. More,
we must take the deep spiritual vow of
povertj^ renouncing all, as possessions,
counting every word He shall speak,
and every truth He shall reveal,
through whatsoever methods, as our
chief and only wealth. In short, we
must not be held, either by being pos-
sessed by others, or possessing aught.
There must be a clean severance from
all entanglement, and an utter uncom-
promising abandonment of ourselves to
Him. Unless this be so, we cannot be
His disciples. If this be our attitude,
then, to us He gives pardon, cleansing,
light ; and so, becoming by relationship
His disciples, and entering His school,
we are ready for, and enter upon our
course of instruction.
19
Discipleship
If these conditions seem hard and
severe, let it be remembered what de-
pends upon them. Character and des-
tiny depend upon this question of dis-
cipleship. Not to impart information,
and to satisfy curiosity, is Jesus the
Teacher. It is because the truth sancti-
fies and makes free that He reveals it,
and because, apart from the revelation
He has to make, there is no possible
way of realizing God's great purposes
for us. Compare Himself and His
teaching with the most sacred and
beautiful of earth's loves and posses-
sions, and these are unworthy of a mo-
ment's thought. They must all come
from between Him and ourselves, so
that we may know and do His will.
Such attitude does not rob us of the
enjoyment of all these things, so far as
in themselves they are right. It rather
adds to our joy.
Self^ renders it impossible to know
Christ, when other loves and interests
intervene, and breeds dissatisfaction
with all else and makes that very self
sad and weak. Christ absolute, lights
the whole being with His love, and joy,
20
Becoming a Disciple
and beauty, and shines on other loves to
their sanctification, and so, the abnega-
tion of self is self's highest develop-
ment.
So let us enter the school of Jesus,
and, receiving His gifts, await His teach,
ing.
51
n
PIEST LESSONS
Saviour and Master
These sayings of Thine,
Help me to make them
Doings of mine ;
Words that like beama
Of humanity shine,
By them let me build up
The holy, divine.
— Paxton Hood.
The Sermon on the Mount — as it is
popularly styled, though the title al-
ways seems inadequate and poor — was
delivered specially to the disciples.
The first and second verses of the fifth
chapter of Matthew very clearly declare
this, "And seeing the multitudes, He
went up into the mountain ; and when
He had sat down, His disciples came unto
Him : and He opened His mouth and
taught THEM, saying." The multitude
followed and gathered round this little
group of Teaoher and taught, but the
22
First Lessons
teaching was for the disciples only —
that is, for such as were brought into
those necessary relations, of which our
first chapter spoke, and so could follow
and in some measure receive the won-
drous words. In actual experience the
teaching of this sermon is very far in
advance even of this advanced age.
Men have hardly begun to guess at the
glory and beauty of this wonderful
ideal, but in relation to the Teacher it
is elementary and initial. All the
wealth of His knowledge — knowledge
that He is waiting to impart — lies be-
yond anything said here. Here He
deals with the first ideals of true life,
and reveals to men the Divine purpose
for them to-day. These are His first
LESSONS. Any exhaustive dealing with
all the wonderful and delicate detail is
impossible, and it is not indeed the pur-
pose of this study. A general analysis
of the whole, that we may catch its
sweep and scope, and obtain an outline
of the system, is what is possible and
necessary. We shall now proceed to
this consideration, noticing seven points
of importance. This study should be
23
Discipleship
taken with your Bible as your com.
panion, tracing the teaching therein.
1. Supremacy of Character'
(Matt. V. 1-12). The very first word
that falls from His lips is a revelation
•of the will of God for man. *' Blessed."
^' Happy.'* That is the Divine thought
4ind intention for us. Sorrow, tears,
pain, disappointment, all these may be,
and are, of inestimable value in the
Father's discipline ; but they are means
to an end, made necessary by man's sin.
The end, in the purpose of God is bless-
>edness. Happiness is that after which
all men in every age seek, and the first
note in the Saviour's teaching reveals
it, as what God is seeking also. How,
then, is it to be realized ? This section
■contains the Master's answer. Men
hold two views of what happiness con-
sists in, viz, having, and doing. To
possess much, or to do some great,
thing, constitutes the sum of human
blessedness according to popular the-
ory. Our Teacher sweeps these con-
ceptions away by absolutely ignoring
them. No *' blessed" of His lights up
Tfor man either the "having" or "do-
24
First Lessons
ing '* of man. Being is everything. A
man's happiness depends upon what he
is in himself. These " blesseds " of
Jesus touch human life in its lowliest
phases, and reveal the highest possibil-
ities even for such. Henceforth for the
disciples of Jesus themselves, and for a
basis of their estimate of others, char-
acter is to be supreme. There is in-
finite tenderness in this on its positive
side, and it is stern and inexorable on
the negative. Such teaching will pro-
duce lives running contrary to all
worldly estimate and custom, and dis-
cipleship will mean persecution, and so
the Teacher adds a "blessed " for those
who suffer through character.
2. Influence the Intention (v.
13-16). This grows out of the former,
and is at once the statement of a fact
and the declaration of an intention.
The fact is that character tells upon
others. If a man live in the atmosphere
of the beatitudes of Jesus, his life bein£
of the character described, he will, apart
from any effort along the line of actual
work, exert certain influences. This is
not only a fact, it is part of the Divine
25
Discipleship
intention. Salt savorless, light under
a bushel, are worse than useless ; this is,
however, the statement of an impossible
hypothesis. Salt savorless ceases to be
salt. Light under a bushel goes out.
This the Master intends us to under-
stand, and hence the terrific force of
His figures of speech.
These symbols mark for us distinctly
the influence that the blessed life ex-
erts. Salt is antiseptic, pungent, pre-
venting the spread of corruption, and
making that portion where health bor-
ders on disease smart. Remember ab-
solute corruption never smarts. When
men smart under the influence of the
antiseptic life of righteousness, it is a
sign for which we should be thankful,
conscience is not altogether dead, they
are not " past feeling." The disciples
then are to be salt, preventing corrup-
tion, and arousing the dormant sense
of health. Light is here used, I think,
in its sense of guidance. Men are
groping after God in this age with no
light of their own by which to find Him.
Your life is to be a light, by the aid of
which men come to glorify God. Let
26
First Lessons
no man whose life fails to be antiseptic,
and never helps another Godward, im-
agine himself living within the circle of
beatitudes.
3. The New Moral Code (v. 17-
48). Having thus seen the supremacy
of character as the secret of happiness
and the source of influence, we ask
what are the laws which govern the de-
velopment of such character. The new
code of ethics is startling. The Mosaic
law of conduct was easy to obey when
compared to this. The former is done
away in the sense in which the less is
included in the greater. Greater it
surely is. Let this section be carefully
read, remembering the following points :
— I. The righteousness of the disciples
is to exceed that of the Pharisees, as
inner purity exceeds external white-
ness. II. Gifts on the altar do not ex-
piate wrongdoing. III. To look on
sin with desire is sin ; in other words,
suppression of sin is still sin, because it
recognizes the presence of a principle
antagonistic to Gid and excuses it.
IV. Retaliation is forbidden, and love
is to be the one law of relative life. No
27
Discipleship
one can reverently study this ideal of
life without seeing the necessity for the
fulfilling of the conditions of entrance
to discipleship.
4. Self-stricken (vi.). This chap-
ter may, and undoubtedly does, contain
Yery much teaching along other lines,
but the underlying principle is that of
self-abnegation. Note how the injunc-
tions run counter to every popular idea
of life : — I. Alms are to be given
privately, not blazoned abroad. II.
Prayer is preeminently a matter 'twixt
the soul and God ; certainly not to be a
means of advertising self's piety. III.
Men are still to fast, but with glad face,
not ** appearing " so to do, so that self
is to have no glory for its denial of it-
self. IV. Wealth is not to be held, save
on trust. V. Self is to be smitten so
that anxiety concerning necessities can-
not exist. Surely never were self-con-
sideration and self-consciousness so
smitten hip and thigh as here.
5. Relative Charity (vii. 1-5).
The consideration of my brother's fault
is to drive me to self-examination rather
that to the passing of judgment on him.
28
First Lessons
I am ever to count my fault a beam
and his a mote.
6. The Open Treasure House
(vii. 7-14). With what light and glory
of tender love does this section come to
us. Just as one's spirit is in danger of
being overwhelmed with the sense of
the impossibility of realizing such ideals,
He reveals to us the wealth that lies at
our disposal in the love and power of
the Father, and in simplest and best
understood words, He reveals our priv-
ilege in that matter. "Ask." "Seek.'*
*' Knock." For daily help remember
the acrostic here. Take the initial let-
ters A, S, K, and reflect that the words
for which they stand reveal the secret
combination that admits us into the
treasure house of love, where there is
stored for us all that we need for the
realization of the ideal.
7. Warning (vii. 15-23). What
solemn words of warning are these.
Siren voices will seek to lure us. No
teaching but His can produce the true
character. The truth of every message
is to be tested by the life of the Teacher,
and if failure is found there, we are to
29
Discipleship
know him for "false" no matter how
cleverly the sheep's clothing conceals
the devouring wolf. How careful we
need to be, lest all should be marred by
our being drawn aside by specious
teaching which is contrary to His Will.
These lessons are all initial, lying at
the very foundation of all Christ has to
teach men. In proportion as they are
realized He is able to lead us forward
to deeper truths. An English Bishop
said that this Sermon on the Mount
could not be applied to the State.
Whatever the Bishop intended, there
is a side on which he was perfectly cor-
rect. These principles cannot be car-
ried out in any State, save where the
Kinghood of Jesus is recognized, and
men are His disciples. None save dis-
ciples can understand, much less obey
His teaching. The crowds leaving the
mountain were impressed with the au-
thority of the teaching, but they were
not captivated with its beauty, for all
this was beyond their comprehension.
Christianity did not come by force of
arms, nor could it. Christianity will
never come by Act of Parliament. Thd
30
First Lessons
wisest of earth's scholars, and the most
astute of her politicians, can lift no
finger to help the Kingdom of God save
by coming in to the school of Jesus, and
learning of Him by the inshining of the
Holy Spirit. That lonely, laboring soul
in back court, or isolated village, or far-
off heathen hut, who is spelling out
under the unique Teacher the lessons
of this great deliverance, and so build-
ing character on these sayings of His,
is doing more to realize on earth the
Kingdom of God, and so to bring the
golden age, than all the company of
diplomatists and politicians, who are
forgetful in all practical things of the
Nazarene. To the learning of these
first great lessons, let us set ourselves
with all submission of spirit and sur-
render of life.
31
ra
THE METHOD OF ADVANCEMENT
No matter how dull the scholar whom He
Takes into His school, and gives him to see ;
A wonderful fashion of teaching He hath
And wise to salvation He makes us through faith.
Tlie wayfariuji men though fools shall not stray,
His method so plain, so easy His way.
— Charles Wesley.
The subject of this chapter is not in-
tended to suggest the idea that all the
" First Lessons " with which the last
chapter dealt are to be realized to the
full, and that not till then progress may
be made beyond. The thought is rather
that of advancement in those first great
lessons. They contain a statement of
the full possibilities of character in these
days of probation, and therefore it
would be impossible to go beyond them
in this respect. At the same time, it
must be remembered that Jesus said
very much bej^ond this to His disciples,
giving them to know and understand
The Method of Advancement
many of the things of God that had to
do with tlieir ultimate destiny and the
Divine purposes for the race ; and after
all His teaching at the last He had to
leave them, saying, " I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now. Howbeit, when He,
the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will
guide you into all truth." The teach-
ing of the First Lessons is for the crea-
tion of that character to which the
deeper things of God become intelli-
gible, and advancement in the under-
standing and realization of these, fits us
for receiving and understanding what-
ever else may be beyond. The con-
sideration of this chapter includes both
these things, though directed principally
to the former. How, then, can we ad-
vance?
1. Right Relationships with the
Teacher must be Maintained. Fail-
ure to understand this is perhaps one
of the subtlest dangers to which the
disciple is exposed. The idea is com-
mon that at some set time, through
some special season of blessing, one en-
ters into right relationships with Him,
33
Discipleship
and that therefore, through all the
coming days, these relationships abide.
It is absolutely false. There is nothing
in all the realms of life more delicate,
more easy to interfere with than these
relationships. As the most tremendous
forces of which man knows anything
are set in operation by simplest meth-
ods, and may be hindered by means
equally simple, so in relation to this
greatest of all forces — the cleansing and
illuminating force of contact with Jesus.
By the simple method of cessation of
activity I come into living contact with
it, and by a moment's self-assertion, I
may hinder its working. Hence the
need for living dail}^ and hourly and
every moment at the very place of be-
ginnings, ever as a child depending upon
Him, and ever as one of the weakest of
those who love Him, abiding in Him.
It is a glorious thing to know that my
cleansing and illumination depend upon
Him, and that the whole of my respon-
sibility in this matter is marked by my
maintaining personal relationship with
Him. This, however, is inexorable.
Daily personal communion there must
34
The Method of Advancemc:nt
be, and the means of such, study of His
word, waiting upon Him in prayer, the
cultivation of close fellowship, by tell-
ing Him everything— joys as well as
sorrows — and the periods of silence in
which the soul simply waits and listens
in the stillness for His voice, these can-
not be neglected without a film, a veil,
a cloud, a darkness coming between the
soul and Himself, and so hindering the
possibility of advancement.
All this specially needs emphasizing
in an age, characterized by its rush and
unrest, its loss of the old spirit of medi-
tation and quiet, a characterization that
applies to Christendom to-day as evi-
denced by over-organization, never
ceasing rounds of societies, meetings,
doings, and the lessening of the seasons
of retirement and true worship. Per-
sonal relationship cannot be maintained
in crowds. The Master and I alone,
must be a perpetual need, and for its
realization opportunity must be made.
2. The Truth Taught Must Be-
come Incarnate in the Disciples.
As we insisted at the outset, disciple-
ship is not a condition for amassing Id-
35
Discipleship
formation. Every doctrine has its issue
in some clearly defined duty, every
theory taught reveals a practical appli-
cation and responsibility. To the soul
in right relationship with the Teacher,
He reveals some new aspect of truth,
and straightway there occurs some cir-
cumstance in which that doctrine may
be tested by duty; and as we are most
real in ordinary circumstances, — our
true selves appearing then, rather than
in the heroic and extraordinary days of
life? — it is in the simple and common-
place experiences that these testing
places are mostly to be found. All the
circumstances and surroundings of the
disciples are in the hands of the Su-
preme Lord who teaches, and these He
manipulates and arranges for the pur-
pose of the advancement and develop,
ment of His own. This is a great com-
fort. He knows the capacity and
weakness and strength of everyone in
His school, and His examinations do
not consist in a common testing for a
common standard, and so are not com-
petitive. They are rather individual,
special care being taken with each one,
3a
The Method of Advancement
and Peter will learn the supreme lesson
of love with John, but the opportunity
for manifesting it as a force in life will
be separate and special in each case.
Now, advancement is dependent al-
ways on our obedience in these hours of
testing, in our manifesting in actual
practice the power of the truth we have
heard in theory. No lesson is consid-
ered learned in the school of Jesus,
which is only committed to memory.
That lesson only is learned which is
incarnate in the life, and becomes beau-
tiful in its realization and declaration
in that way ; and until this is so there
can be no progress. " If any man will-
eth to do His will, he shall know of the
teaching" (John vii. 17). This is so,
because the teaching of Jesus is cumula-
tive and progressive. To attempt to
learn the lessons of to-morrow without
knowledge of to-day's would be the
utmost folly. Just as no boy can intel-
ligently do a problem in Euclid until
he knows the definitions and accepts
reasonably the axioms, and takes each
successive step to the one in hand, so
surely no disciple can possibly make
37
Discipleship
progress in the truth of God, save as
the first steps are taken. You cannot
leave first principles and go on unto
perfection, save as these first things
have become principles, and not merely
theoiies.
Here we touch the secret of much of
the failure in Christian living to-day.
The powerlessness in service, the unat-
tractiveness in life, wliat do they mean ?
Has the system of Jesus failed in these
lives ? Have the great lessons He came
to teach humanity broken down in their
application to human life? Take any
single example — it may be that of your
own experience. When you first be-
came a disciple, your days were days of
delight and joy, the words and will of
the Master thrilled and comforted you,
and you walked in His ways with a joy
and gladness that filled the days with
song. The people you touched in daily
life saw the beauty of Jesus in you.
Gentle, long-suffering, strong and pure,
you incarnated His lessons, and your
heart was glad, and other lives were
influenced Godward. All has changed.
Prayer is a duty. The scriptures are
38
The Method of Advancement
dull and burdensome. You have no
quick sense of the Lord's will. Your
Christianity has become a restriction
through which you would like to break,
an encumbrance of which you would
fain be rid. These are confessions you
never make, but they tell the true inner
story of your life. Now what does this
really mean ? Just this. Somewhere
back in the past you will find a day
when the Teacher gave you some new
vision of truth that straightway revealed
an opportunity for you to know the
glory of that truth in the pathway of
obedience. Something to be given up.
Something to be done. Some word to
be said. You paused, argued, dis-
obeyed. No other lesson has been
given, nor can be. Every other de-
pended upon that. That was not final.
It was preparatory, and until that is
learned by obedience there can be no
advancement, and so for weeks, per-
chance months, aye, even years, you
have been a disciple making no prog-
ress, and there is no wonder that you
are weary of it all.
The Teacher's love is marked in your
39
Discipleship
case by His fidelity to Himself and His
own lessons. Time after time, in meet-
ings, in conversations, in loneliness, He
brings you back to that old point, and
reiterates with a persistence and a pa-
tience passing all human understand-
ing : — *' If any man willeth to do His
will, he shall know of the teaching."
I have known all progress hindered
for years because a letter w^as not writ-
ten, and I saw the face of the disciple
the day after that letter was despatched.
The old light was restored, and the old
joy returned as the great Teacher again
began to reveal His will.
3. Advancement Can Only be
Within the Limit of Divine Pur-
pose. While it is true that God has
for an ultimate purpose, some place of
high service far on, and out of sight, a
glory and fruition beyond these days of
learning and probation, a being and a
doing for which all the teaching and
discipline of to-day are preparing us, it
is also true that, as part of His great
progressive movement. He has an im-
mediate purpose in every life, some-
thing for us to accomplish for Him here
40
The Method of Advancement
and now. It is to-day we are workers
together with Him. There is no waste
of time or material in the Divine meth-
ods. Every step He takes us, every
word He speaks to us, every testing He
permits us, contributes something to-
ward the development and progress of
all. Joseph sold into slavery, David
exiled from his kingdom. Job crouch-
ing under the whirlwind, Paul bearing
the buffeting of Satan's messenger, all
are examples. These experiences were
dark and mysterious for the time, and
while they formed part of the individual
training of these men, they were also in
each case a necessary part of the Di-
vine dealing with the larger circle. At
the time, the principal consciousness
was that of limitation, and consequent
longing for larger revelation, but at last
they all came to understand that for the
sake of others they suffered and bore,
and that was to them more than com-
pensation for all the restriction and
waiting. There are many things we
know not now because the greater issues
would be hindered by our knowing. So
what is best, the Teacher holds in re-
41
Disclpleship
serve, that we may moment by moment
bear our share in this march of God to
ultimate triumph and light.
This section of oar study is a most
solemn one. So many disciples in name
have ceased to be taught of Jesus, and
we are all in such perpetual danger of
slipping out of the real circle of discl-
pleship, that we ought to ask ourselves
the questions suggested by these three
points on the subject of advancement.
These questions should be asked regu-
larly and always in the hour of loneli-
ness with the Master.
I. Am I in right relationship with the
Teacher to-day ? Do I still live at the
Cross and know the power of its cleans-
ing moment by moment, and so am I
walking in the light, without which all
the words of Jesus are dark sayings,
and His testings crosses, burdens out of
which I can only gather reasons for
murmuring?
II. If I am not in this place of mam-
tained fellowship, where did I depart
therefrom ? What word of His have I
disobeyed? To that point let me re-
turn, whether it be but an hour ago, or
42
The Method of Advancement
years, and there let me absolutely sur-
render, at whatever cost, and do what
He requires, however small, or however
irksome it appears to be.
III. Am I content to wait when His
voice does not speak — and I cannot find
the reason in myself — until He has ac-
complished His present purpose in me,
even though I understand it not just
now ?
With matchless patience and pity,
and tender love beyond all attempts at
explanation, this Teacher waits, and
stoops, and woos us, and ever for our
highest good and deepest peace. Let
us then, by consecrated watching, main-
tain the attitude of advancement, and
so, line upon line, precept upon precept,
here a little and there a little, as we are
able to bear. He will lead us on, until
we come to the perfect light and life
and love of God.
43
IV
THE DISCIPLE AT HOME
Thus it is with the homely life around,
There hidden, Christ abides ;
Still by the single eye forever found
That seeketh none besides.
When hewn and shaped till self no more is
found,
Self, ended at Thy Cross ;
The precious freed from all the vile around,
No gain, but blessed loss.
Then Christ alone remains — the former things
Forever passed away ;
And unto Him the heart in gladness sings
All through the weary day.
— JT. Suso.
So far we have considered the great
essential facts of discipleship. There
is a sense in which we hold most tena-
ciously that view of Christianity which
is spoken of to-day as "other-worldly."
Man's destiny lies beyond this life of
probation, and toward that great issue
the Master is ever working as He teaches
44
The Disciple at Home
us the lessons of His love. Yet it has
ever been the glory of Christianity that
it is intensely practical, touching tlie
present life at every point with healing
and beauty, sweetening all the streams
by purifying the sources. In this and
the following papers it will be ours to
trace the effect of discipleship on the
common relationships of life.
We begin then with Home, because
of its paramount importance. Perhaps
there is no side of life more in danger
of being neglected in this busy, many-
sided age, than that of Home, and cer-
tainly there is no side which we can less
afford to neglect. No service for God
is of any value which is contradicted by
the life at home, neither have we any
right to neglect home on the plea of
multiplied engagements ontside.
The home of the disciple may be con-
ducive to progress in grace, or it may
be quite the reverse, and of course the
duty will vary accordingly.
Let us first look at the great ideal of
the Christian home presented in the New
45
Discipleship
Testament, and then make particular ap-
plication of the same.
1. To the follower of Jesus Christ,
there are certain central and unalter-
able facts which will touch and influ-
ence all the home relationships. Let
us look first at these.
I. The New Authority stands in the
forefront. The Teacher has claimed an
absolute and unvarying supremacy over
the life. That initial condition of dis-
cipleship now enters into every ques-
tion, and from it there can be no devi-
ation— no, not for a single moment.
This authority is one that will set up
the ideals of life, and declare the stand-
ard of action in all the larger and more
important matters of the days, and in
the most simple and trifling details of
the passing moments. This authority
becomes the gauge and measure of all
other government. The Tightness or
otherwise of any rule of life imposed on
the disciple by any otlier person is to
be tested by the Will of the Master.
So my obligation to any person as a dis-
ciple is limited or enforced by my su-
preme obligation to Jesus. Responsi-
The Disciple at Home
bility to Him is higher than that of wife
to husband, or child to parents, or serv-
ant to master. These are all relation-
ships of His approving, but His claim is
first, and if any of these clash with that,
they are to be sacrificed, this to abide.
II. Then comes the New Attitude
created toward others. The relation-
ship of the disciple to Christ, as we
have seen, is that of life. Now, this life
is the life of Christ, and what it is in
itself must now become the governing
force, and so give new character to my
feeling and acting toward others. His
Life is Love. That Life, regnant in me,
creates the disposition of love toward
all. The old scheme of life was that of
a preeminent sense of the importance
of self, and all other interests were made
subservient to that, and all other per-
sons loved or disliked as they minis-
tered to or interfered with that. Now,
love governing, each will " esteem other
better than himself,'' and the need of
the outsider will become the touchstone
of life. The light of Christ's presence
will reveal the shortcomings of myself,
and the hitherto unrecognized excel-
47
Discipleship
lences of others. So the attitude of the
disciple will become like that of his
Lord — the attitude of one who waits
not to be ministered unto, but to min-
ister, and the bearing of the cup of cold
water to the thirsty will be the delight
of all the days, opportunities for which
will not be waited for, but sought.
Out of these esssential considerations
there grows a new sense altogether of
what home really is. It is to be the
first, and perhaps the most simple and
beautiful manifestation of the authority
of Jesus. Every member of the home,
recognizing that supreme Kingship, will
find their relationship toward each other
ennobled aiid purified as they live in the
great realm of His love. Each willing
to sink personal aims for the sake of
the realization of the highest good of
all, no one desiring to gratify any part
of their own desire at the expense of
another, self-abnegation, the individual
law that realizes the general peace and
>estfulness, makes home at its highest
and best. So the manifestation of the
beauty of the kingdom of Jesus in real-
ization of His beatitudes in the home
48
The Disciple at Home
being the supreme desire of eacli and
all, personal blessedness is also realized,
and every sacred tie of home becomes
in itself more delightful and satisfying
for Christ's mission amongst His dis-
ciples is ever the fulfilling, and never
the destruction of all high and noble
ideals. The real music and beauty of
home are only knov^^n to those who are
simple and faithful disciples of Jesus.
III. What a glorious picture is pre-
sented of a true home in the writings
of the Apostle Paul. Himself a man,
who for the highest reasons never per-
haps knew the joy of such life, he never-
theless understood its beauty, and if you
will take the different words he writes
in his Epistles as to the true position
and duty of husband, wife, parent, child,
master, servant, you will see the vision
of the perfect home life. At the prin-
cipal points let us look.
((2). Take first the husband and wife
in their relation to each other, and as
parents toward their children. What
more wonderful ideal than this can there
be ? *' Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the Church, and
49
Disclpleship
gave Himself for it." That is true love.
Absolute self-abnegation, the one over-
mastering passion being that of the high-
est good and greatest happiness of the
wife. How impossible in such love the
thousand little neglects which mar the
life of women, and render them heavy
with disappointed hope. How far more
impossible the selfish brutality that too
often has made home infinitely more
like hell than heaven. Again, *' Wives,
submit yourselves unto your own hus-
bands, as unto the Lord." That can
only be obeyed when the husband is
loving with the Lord's love. When
that is so, see how beautifully there is
recognized here the true view of woman's
love, as that which finds its highest man-
ifestation in submission. Then the rev-
elation of Paul's writings concerning
the relation of parents to children is a
remarkable one and sorely needs re-
stating in these days. It is that of the
father's responsibility. It is he who is
to train them; and see how tenderly
this is to be, not by the methods that
will provoke anger, but in "nurture and
admonition of the Lord."
50
The Disciple at Home
(6). Then the position of the child,
simply marked by the one thought of
obedience. What a glorious and tender
thought it is. It implies an authority
provided which frees the tender life
from the responsibility of thinking and
planning, and provides that it shall make
advancement toward perfection, within
the realm of a very definite and direct
government. How grand a provision
that is, perhaps we never fully realize
until we have passed beyond it, and
amid the strife of life, with its oft-re-
curring crises, when we are sore be-
wildered as to which path we ought
to take, we long for the days of child-
hood again, when we could ask Father,
Mother, and when in obeying them we
knew we were doing that which pleased
the Lord. That view of obedience as
the Lord's tender provision for their
safety and development, sliould ever be
presented to our dear disciple-children.
What a responsibility it entails upon us
parents that we seek our laws for them
from the King.
((?). Then there is the presence in the
home of those who help and serve. The
51
Discipleship
position of these is made very sacred in
the school of Jesus. Most distinctly is
it laid down that they can do "all
things " as unto the Lord, and that ex-
pression includes and lights up the most
trivial duties that they are called u^^on
to render. It is of such that the won-
derful possibility is declared, that they
may "adorn the doctrine of God our
Saviour." How beautiful the life of
some is, we know full well. Toward
them the Christian master is to exercise
the patience of his Master toward him-
self, making demands on eager, loving
service, not by threatening, but by lov-
ing, Christly recognition of the holiness
of their service, and its value to the
Lord Himself.
2. This is a glorious picture. No
such ideal of home has ever been pre-
sented to the world. It has been real-
ized in a large measure over and over
again. No truer fore-glimpse of the
heavenlies can be found than that of the
Christian home, with all its deep love,
quiet peace, and constant brightness and
merriment. Discipleship has often to
be maintained in very different home
52
The Disciple at Home
surroundings. The husband, wife, par-
ent, child, servant, may either of them
be the only disciple, and their relation-
ship to Christ looked upon with pity,
contempt, or even open opposition.
The position of such is a very difficult
one ; but for this, as for all other cir-
cumstances, the grace and power of
Christ are sufficient. When this is so,
there is a twofold responsibility resting
upon the Christian, —
I. Remembering the great ideals,
there must be a realization of the Mas-
ter's will for the individual case. The
Christ-life of love must govern and
manifest itself toward others, even
though there be no return on the part
of the dearest earthly friends.
II. Then, if that manifestation bring
contempt and persecution, there is to be
an absence of the revengeful spirit, and
the presence of loving patience, that so
the unbelieving may be won by the be-
havior of the believing.
The creation of true Christian homes
is the splendid possibility of young dis-
53
Discipleship
cipleship. The question of marriage
lies at the base of this. Unequal yok-
ing together of the disciples of Jesus
with unbelievers is one of the most dis-
astrous matters for the Church and the
world. And there should be no al
liance of life even between believers
unless the Lord's will be so clearly re-
vealed that there can be no mistaking it.
The ideal Christian home, will ever
have a door open to welcome the home-
less ones of our great centres of popu-
lation, that its atmosphere of love may
help to guard and form the life of such.
64
THE DISCIPLE AT BUSINESS
Yea, we know that Thou rejoicest
O'er each work of Thine ;
Thou didst ears and hands and voices
For Thy praise design ;
Craftsman's art and Music's measure
For Thy pleasure
All combine.
—F. Pott
There is no more common mistake,
or more dangerous, than that work is in
some way connected with the curse.
Man was created for work. It is one of
the very first laws of his being. Un-
employed man is a contravention of the
Divine purpose. Hence, before man
fell, we see him in all the strength of
his perfect being, at work. " And the
Lord God took the man, and put him
into the garden of Eden to dress it and
to keep it" (Gen. ii. 15). Sin brought
weariness and disappointment, which
made work a burden, but work itself is
55
Discipleship
a Divine arrangement for the gladden-
ing of life.
This law abides under the Christian
dispensation. No word Christ spoke
can be construed into a word revoking
it. It is rather taken up and enforced
by Christ Himself and the apostles. In
the " Sermon on the Mount " the Lord
recognizes the power to work as a
special gift which raises us above the
level of birds and flowers. Of the fowls
He said *'Are not ye of much more
value than they?" (Matt. vi. 26); and
of the flowers "If God doth so clothe
the grass .... shall Pie not much more
clothe you?" (vi. 30). In each case,
the teaching is not that we should
neither " sow" nor "reap," and neither
"toil" nor "spin," but that, having
these powers and using them, how much
more likely it is that our need should
be supplied, rather than that of fowls
or flowers. The philosophy of the sit-
uation is that Christ recognizes all gifts
and callings as from God, and looks
upon them as the channels through
which God will supply our need. Paul
is most clear in his exposition of the
56
The Disciple at Business
will of God in these matters. In writ-
ing to the Thessalonians (II. ii. 10) he
makes working the condition of eating,
and in writing to the Ephesians (iv.
28) he places working in antithesis to
stealing, and reveals the larger social
responsibility when he says, that a man
is to work not merely for his own sup-
port, but *'that he may have whereof to
give to him that hath need ; " and in his
first letter to Timothy (v. 8) he de-
clares that " If any provideth not for
his own, and specially his own house-
hold, he hath denied the faith, and is
worse than an unhelievery
Recognizing tlie great truth of the
solidarity of humanity, that each per-
son is part of the whole, that the whole
is incomplete in the incompleteness of
any, it is evident that all the great and
increasing needs of humanity for this
life are provided for by God in the gifts
He has bestowed, to every man sever-
ally as He will, His will ever being
the well-being and ])a})piness of the
creature. Every ability to do some-
thing which will be for the su])port of
the worker, and at the same time con-
67
Discipleship
tribute to the legitimate needs of others,
is a Divine gift, a Divine calling. Ca-
pacity for brain work, dexterity of
fingers, are each and in every variety of
application, Divinely bestowed. To
dig — whether with spade, or plough, or
shaft and machinery for metals — is a
calling of God. To construct with
wood, or stone, or iron, for permanence
or locomotion, is a Divine gift. To see
a vision and paint it, to hear music and
translate it, to catch glimpses of truth
and embody them in form poetic, these
and all the thousands of various gifts
bestowed upon men are OF God. On
every individual some gift is bestowed,
save perchance upon those who, in these
days of humanity's sin and sorrow, are
from their birth limited in their powers.
Not only the preacher, but every man,
has a calling of God, and the duty of
each man to God, to the community, to
himself, is to find that calling, and
therein to abide. (See I. Cor. vii. 20-
24).
This is the great Divine ideal from
which humanity has wandered, to its
sorrow, shame, and undoing; and as
58
The Disciple at Business
discipleship means a return to Divine
ideals through the teaching and power
of Jesus, we must now apply these
principles to the disciple as he or she
enters business.
1. The first serious question, then,
for the disciple is, '* What is the gift be-
stowed upon me, the calling of God for
me?" The answer to that is to be
found within, rather than without. A
gift ever means fitness. To every man
God intends to make watches, He has
given the necessary fineness of touch
and nerve patience. To every woman
He designs to teach, He has given the
attractive force and lucid gift that fits
her to hold and teach the children*
Discipleship mean facility for discover-
ing the gift of God. The trouble is
that so many have thought that when
we begin to touch these things our
Teacher is uninterested, and so we have
made the greatest blunders of our lives
in choosing our occupation, rather than
setting ourselves to discover the Divine
calling. To the young disciple who
reads this and who has not yet decided
on life's work, let me say in all sim-
59
Discipleship
plicity and confidence, seek to find your
right place in life by telling your Lord
your sense of need, and asking for His
direction. In this matter an enormous
responsibility rests upon parents, that
tliej^ seek to discover the Lord's purpose
for their boys and girls, and then train
them for that position. This can only
be done by patient watching for the
manifestation of the God-bestowed
powers of each life separately and this
cannot he^ when in tender years we send
our children out of our homes to live^ and
so transfer our responsibility to others
than those hy God appoi7ited.
2. The gift being discovered, now
follows the necessity for persistent ap-
plication for the most perfect develop-
ment thereof. The disciple of Jesus,
recognizing his calling in life as of God,
cannot possibly treat it carelessly or
with any measure of indifference.
Every power of the will must be
brought to bear on the application of
the mind to the mastery of the subject
in hand. A Christian carpenter will
master the use of every tool, and lay
himself out to embody in his work the
60
The Disciple at Business
very spirit of the Christ. A Christian
doctor will leave no department of the
great science neglected, or will devote
himself with perfect consecration to
that department for which God has
given him the gift of a specialist. The
great advantage of discipleship is to be
found in the fact that if I recognize my
calling as a Divine one, then I am sure
that he who bestowed the gift under-
stands it, and all my personal applica-
tion to its mastery will be in the spirit
of dependent prayer. Christian me-
chanics, tradesmen, professional men,
should be the finest in the world, and
would be, if they lived in the power of
their relationship to Christ.
3. Fully equipped for qualified serv-
ice, the disciple now faces the sterner
work of the years, and under the pres-
ent conditions of life this is mostly
done as the servant of others. Again,
referring to Paul's words (in I. Cor. vii.
22-24), we see how that the disciple is
to consider his higher relationship to
God. He "is the Lord's free man,"
and is "to abide with God " in his call-
ing. Now, how does that affect his
61
Discipleship
work? It lights it up with the glory
of the Divine goodwill to men, so that
€ach piece of work becomes a part of
the Divine contribution to the need of
the community, and if I measure cloth,
or sell groceries, or paint a picture, or
play an instrument, or set a limb, or
anything that is an exercise of the Di-
vine gift, I do it, not as a means of live-
lihood first, but as part of God's work,
and so I become, down to the smallest
detail of everyday life, " a worker to-
gether with Him." Hold but that view
of life's work, and there can be no more
*' scamping" of work — no, not even to
be in time for a prayer meeting.
How does abiding with God in my
calling affect my relation to my em-
ployer? It makes me treat him as
though he were in my place and I in his.
Hear the Teacher's own words : — '' All
things therefore, whatsoever ye would
that men should do unto you, even so
do ye also unto them" (Matt. vii. 12).
To that nothing can be added.
4. Finally, the disciple in business on
his own account lives and acts within
certain very clearly defined principles.
62
The Disciple at Business
He ever remembers that he is a steward
of his Master. He possesses nothing,
but holds on trust all he has, and is re-
sponsible to Christ for the way he gets,
the way he uses, and the measure of his
getting or holding. No disciple of
Jesus can amass a fortune simply for
the sake of possession. He may be
prosperous in his undertakings, but his
prosperity must ever mean increased
opportunity for Divine service. No
disciple can oppress the hireling in his
wages. That wage should be, not
merely the measure of keeping his
servant's body and soul together, it
should include provision for the culture
of all that his being demands. A "liv-
ing wage " in the common acceptation
of that term, is not the measure for a
Christian paymaster.
A Christian cannot consent to enrich
himself by taking advantage of the
downfall or misfortune of another man.
That man who strikes a bargain to his
own profit which takes advantage of
some pressing need on the part of an-
other, is none of Christ's. No Christian
can take part in the monopolies of the
63
Discipleship
day, which have as the very basis of
their operations the enrichment of the
few to the detriment of the many.
There is nothing perhaps more devilish
in commercial life to-day than the great
monopolies. America is cursed by them,
and England is threatened. No disciple
of Christ can touch them and abide in
the teaching of Jesus. The twofold law
of life, enunciated by our Teacher, will
purify commerce throughout, and noth-
ing short of that will ever do it. " Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. . . . Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt,
xxii. 37-40).
These are said to be impossible ideals
for business life to-day. We reply that
the very essence and genius of disciple-
ship is the realization of the impossible.
It is just because the Church of Jesus
Christ has stood in the presence of His
teaching and said ''Impossible" that
She has become so weak and forceless
in all the affairs of this busy age. Let
64
The Disciple at Business
lis have a few men and women again
who, like the early disciples in Pente-
costal days, believe in Jesus and in the
eternal wisdom of all His teaching, and
who are prepared to suffer the loss of
all things rather than disobey, and the
potency and possibility of His ideals
will begin to dawn on the world again
as it did in those days, breaking up
dynasties, revolutionizing empires, and
turning the world upside down.
Nowhere is such work more needed
than in the realm of commerce, and no-
where can we make better investment
for the Master's Kingdom to-day than
by purifying rigidly that corner of the
great realm which we touch.
Let every disciple find his gift from
God, cultivate it for God, exercise it
abiding in God, and he will not only
secure his own highest success, but will
contribute his quota to the preparatory
work of this dispensation for the coming
of the King and the establishment of
His Kingdom on earth.
65
VI
THE DISCIPLE AT PLAT
In that new ciiildhood of tbe Earth
Life of itself shall dance and plaj,
Fresh blood in Time's shrunk veins make mirth.
And labor meet delight halfway.
— J. Bussell Lowell.
So far there has seemed to be no con-
tradiction of terms in the subjects which
have come under our consideration.
Among all sections of Christians there
would be a concensus of opinion as to
the rightness of considering '* The Dis-
ciple at Home" and "The Disciple at
Business." I do not anticipate any con-
flict of opinion concerning any subse-
quent division of this subject. I can,
however, imagine that there may be a
doubt in the mind of some with regard
to the title at the head of this chapter :
and yet it is of such enormous impor-
tance, that to omit it were not only to
render the study incomplete, but to do
66
The Disciple at Play
Positive injustice to the follower of
r^hrist who, upon this of all subjects, is
feeling his or her need of direct and
wholesome teaching. The fact that
large numbers of young people lose
their spirituality here is due, not to the
inconsistency of play, but rather to lack
of clear teaching, and therefore of fail-
ure to understand the true position of
the child of God in reference thereto.
Let us apply ourselves to a twofold
consideration — firstly as to the fact of
play in the life of discipleship, and then
to the limits which are marked off for
those who are learning of Christ in this
as in all matters.
1. The very first truth to be under-
stood and kept in mind is that of the
purpose of Christ in the present pro-
bationary stage of human life. I have
already emphasized the fact that the
Master is preparing us for an end, which
is beyond the present life altogether.
By that I abide. It must, however, be
remembered that, while in Christ I gaiii
more blessings than my fathers lost, the
very first business of the great scheme
of redemption and instruction is the
67
Discipleship
restoration of man to the Divine ideal
of human life here. The man who most
truly manifests the beauties of human
life in all its bearings, most truly proves
his progress toward and preparation
for the glory that has not yet been re*
vealed. A human being developed on
one side of his nature, to the damage or
contraction of another, is by so much
thwarting a Divine purpose, damaging
a Divine ideal. This we readily admit
in some cases. Such, for instance, as
the development of flesh to the injury
of spirit. It is just as true of a man
who loses his power for stern work in
his abandonment to play. It is equally
true of a man who cannot play because
his power to do so has become deadened
by ceaseless toil. The power to laugh,
to cease work, and frolic in forgetful-
ness of all the conflict, to make merry,
is a Divine bestowment upon man, and
its absence in any case is as sure a mark
of the blighting effects of sin, as is the
frothy life of the devotee of miscalled
pleasure who never contributes any-
thing to the work of his generation.
This power is based upon the wisdom
68
The Disciple at Play
of God, and His knowledge of the needs
of the creatures of His hand. To this
all scientific statement bears witness.
Every medical man knows the enormous
value of prescribing change, exercise,
cessation of toil, and pure amusement,
in order that there may be better work,
harder blows, more clear thinking, and
that the sura total of the life may be of
a higher order : and what is true medi-
cal science but a discovery of the laws
of God for the well-being of the crea-
tures of His love ? Now Jesus did not
come to contradict or set aside any
great law of human life, and most cer-
tainly not til at which thus provides for
the highest development of man. He
has come to interfere here as everywhere
else, and to restore play to its proper
place in every life ; and though He gave
His followers no set of rules. He has
given them in His teaching great prin-
ciples, which will adjust these matters
as perfectly as all others.
Before turning to consider them, let
me state with perfect clearness that
especially in this age of ceaseless ac-
tivity, which is over and over again
69
Disclpleship
more worldly than godly, and in th6
whirl and rush of which every man,
whether he be a Christian or no, is nee-
essarily caught up and carried forward,
it is an absolute necessity, and therefore
a solemn duty, that the follower of
Christ should learn how to play within
proper limits, that so he may be the
stronger man for the stress of the age,
and to confront its rush, and restless-
ness, and weakness, with his testimony
to the peace, and quietness, and tre-
mendous force of the life possessed by,
and matured in God. Perhaps I may
put this most forcefully by a personal
illustration. I find no final preparation
for the delivery of the messages of God
on Sunday — messages for which I must
first solemnly have sought, not only by
prayer, but also by stern application to
study and thought — equal to a Saturday
afternoon in company with some fellow-
disciple, with my bag of clubs, " driving "
a golf ball over, and sometimes into,
"bunkers," "teeing up" and"holeing
out;" and I can stride over the grass
and through the heather and sand, sing-
ing with perfect sincerity :
70
The Disciple at Play
*' I feel like singing all the time,
My tears are wiped away ;
For Jesus is a friend of mine,
I'll serve Him every day."
2. Now as to the limits of play for
the disciple. They are found by nat-
ural sequence, in that condition of life
in which I never for a moment forget
that I am Christ's, and my loyalty to
Him is unquestioning and constant.
How will that one great principle affect
my play? In two ways: — firstly, in
the realm of my personal realization of
His purpose for me, and secondly, in
my relationship with Him for the ac-
complishment of His purpose in all
those with whom I come in contact.
I. As we have seen, the purpose of
Jesus is the perfecting of my being.
It follows, therefore, most clearly that
tny play must ever be recreative in char-
acter, and never destructive. Further,
the complexity of human life must be
considered. Man is neither body, soul,
nor spirit, separately He is body, soul,
and spirit, and between these different
sides of his complex nature there is the
closest and most subtle inter-relation^
71
Discipleship
so that he cannot possibly do injury to
either side without injuring himself as
a whole. To destroy my physical power
is to weaken my mental, and that is for
to-day, at any rate, to limit the oppor-
tunity for the culture of the spiritual.
Any form of play, then, that injures
my physical powers or dwarfs my
mental vigor, or takes away my spirit-
ual sense, is impossible for me as a dis-
ciple of Christ. That play, and only
that, which recreates, and so fits for
larger service, is legitimate.
II. Then further, I cannot in the
pov/er of the Christ-life live only for
myself. I am not to seek recreation by
any means which involves injury to my
fellow-being, even though the doing
thereof may seem to be of direct bene-
fit to me. Let me not be misunder-
stood. I do not say that because one
man abuses lawn -tennis by waste or
time thereat, I am not to play. I do
say that if I see lawn-tennis has such a
fascination for a friend of mine as to
make him liable to neglect his sterner
work, I am to be " narrow " enough '^.o
refuse to play with him unless he is
72
The Disciple at Play
playing upon the very conditions which
make for his development only, as I
play upon for mine. The relative law-
is that I only have fellowship, even in
play, with a fellow-being upon the
principles which are highest and best
for him, and never upon what he sets
up for himself, if they are lower than
the highest. Neither can I consent to
be amused in any form by that which
is debasing the life of those who amuse
me. I have purposely avoided naming
any forms of play save those that would
be looked upon as legitimate in proper
time and place by almost every Chris-
tian. This avoidance has been due to
the fact that I very strongly desire in
this, as in every detail of life, to throw
the disciple upon the Master for direct
guidance, and this because I am per-
suaded there is no other safe course,
because there is no other unfailing and
infallible authority. Jesus makes a
specialty of every individuality, and
He alone can do this. That which may
be perfectly lawful and right for me
may be a sin to my brother, and that
which I dare not do at the risk of losing
73
Disclpleship
my spiritual force, he may find con-
ducive to his highest advancement. Let
each one seek the Lord's direct pleasure,
and be true to that, and there can be no
mistake ; but by following human ex-
amples, or making others the standard
of what one may or may not do, one
will be constantly liable to get into
places of positive danger. These prin-
ciples in application will be found most
drastic, and yet will bring us into the
air of perfect liberty. There are some
forms of wordly amusement debasing
and injurious in themselves, and some
which are procured at the cost of the
degradation and ruin of others. Against
all these the disciple by word and life
should be a constant protest. One of
the surest ways to combat them, is to
manifest in our lives the joyousness of
discipleship, and that, in our power to
play purely and perfectly, as surely in
the light of the Divine love as when
we pray or preach.
74
VII
THE DISCIPLE AS A FEIEND
I would joy in your joy : let me have a friend's
part
In the warmth of your welcome of hand and of
heart, —
On your playground of boyhood unbend the
brow's care,
And shift the old burdens our shoulders must
bear.
—J. O. Whittier.
Of all the words in our language
which have been undergoing change of
meaning, perhaps none have been more
abused than this word " friend." Hav-
ing as its root idea the thought of love
— for it is really the present participle
of the old Anglo-Saxon verb " freon,"
to love — it marked in old time the close
union of two persons — other than rela-
tives— in the bonds of sincere love for
each other, love that made each, care
for, and desire to serve, the other better
than himself. It is now used too often
Discipleship
in a loose way. A man is my friend
to-day if he be but a passing acquaint-
ance, or if we are on speaking terms. I
want to write of the disciple as a friend
in the older sense of comradeship —
close heart — companionship. The word
is a Bible word, and comes by transla-
tion both from the Hebrew and the
Greek, from words conveying this
thought. The Hebrew word translated
friend signifies an associate, and comes
from the root *' to pasture." So a friend
is one of the flock, feeding together,
sharing the very sustenance of life.
The Greek word is the word lover, and
so is in perfect harmony with the
thought of the English word used for
its translation.
Man, by virtue of his humanity, all
the world over, seeks for friendship.
The life of the hermit, the recluse, is
abnormal. It is contrary to the very
genius of human nature for man to live
alone. This desire for friendship grows
out of the deepest necessity of his na-
ture, he being created for others as well
as for himself. Sympathy, love, service,
are the very essentials of human nature
76
The Disciple as a Friend
at its best, and these demand an object.
So, in the largest and most general
sense man is not intended to be alone.
Coming into a closer consideration of
this great law, we find among men tliis
further necessity for personal friend^
ship. Every man could not be a close
companion of every other. We have to
do with the selective law of affinity.
That is the subtle, almost undefinable
somewhat, which draws two people to-
gether in a brotherhood, sometimes
closer than the brotherhood of blood.
We say undefinable, because it is often
difficult to know why two particular
persons are such friends. Affinity may
mean conformity, agreement, resem-
blance ; it is also the union of bodies of
a dissimilar nature in one harmonious
whole. This law of personal friendship
has held in all time. David and Jona-
than have had their forerunners and
successors throughout the generations
of human kind. Now, in this, as in all
other matters, Christ comes to fulfill
and not to destroy. He sent His dis-
ciples out two by two, as I believe, on a
recognition of this great necessity in
77
Discipleship
human life, and to this time in all
Christian service and Christian living,
the strength and joy of a strong per-
sonal friendship is almost beyond com-
putation.
1. Facing the disciple in this matter
of friendship is a great limitation. He
cannot enter into any close bond, save
with those who are, like himself, sub-
mitted to Jesus Christ. This is the
highest law of all to him, and nothing
that can possibly interfere with his re-
lation to his Lord must be tolerated for
a moment. The claim itself looks hard
and arbitrary, but the infinite wisdom
and love thereof has been evidenced by
the sad results accruing to those who
have disregarded it, and have formed
friendships with the world which have
proved to be enmity against God. The
reason is perfectly clear to those who
have a true conception of what dis-
cipleship really is, and how radically it
differs from all other life.
2. Remembering this, now for a mo-
ment consider how discipleship is in
itself a perfect qualification for the
highest form of friendship. Given two
78
The Disciple as a Friend
disciples of Jesus, drawn toward each
other by the natural law of affinity, and
see how His work in them fits them for
a friendship of the strongest and most
lasting kind.
I. There is the self-denial which He
has enjoined upon them as the way of
entrance upon discipleship, and the con-
dition of its continuity. If self be
smitten to the death, the one most pro-
lific source of dissension, and the break-
ing up of friendship has gone. With
what strength we can love and serve if
v%^e have lost our hold on self, with all
its unceasing demands.
II. Then the common consecration
of the life to the kingship of Jesus.
Two people, loving each other, and each
able to say, *' That life which I now
live in the flesh, I live in faith," (Gal.
ii. 20), have the will and the impulse of
One, and that One, in way and work, is
ever love.
III. Then yet further, there is com-
munion of interest. It is written of the
hosts that gathered to Hebron, that
they were of " one heart to make David
king.'* That common cause made a
79
Discipleship
people, a nation, solid and strong. So
with friendship in Jesus. The disciple
has nothing to live for but by word, and
deed, and prayer to bring on the day of
his Lord's crowning ; and when two of
these are brought into comradeship by
natural law, and their friendship be-
comes hot with the common fervor of a
great purpose such as this, how strong
and lasting must such friendship be.
8. Remembering the limitation and
qualifications of friendship let us now
proceed to consider the friendship of dis-
ciples in itself. Each will cherish for
the other a very high ideal of life, char-
acter, and service, no less than the
will of God in each. The pra3'er of
Epaphras for the Colossian Christians
*' that ye may stand perfect and fully
assured in all the will of God" (Col. iv.
12) is a delightful statement of the
desire that disciple-comrades ever cher-
ish for each other, and the friendship is
ever looked upon as a means to that
end. So the very heart of the golden
rule is reached in such friendship, for
each does to the other what he would
the other should do to him. When this
80
The Disciple as a Friend
is so, there comes that delightful sense
of rest and naturalness in each other's
company which is the very essence of
friendship.
Some years ago a friend gave me a
quotation which I copied into my com-
monplace book. It was from Mrs.
Craik's " Life for a Life," and I give it
here as very beautifully expressing that
thought. " Oh, the comfort, the inex-
pressible comfort of feeling safe with
a person, having neither to weigh
thoughts nor measure words, but pour
them all right out just as they are, chaff
and grain together, knowing that a
faithful hand will take and sift them,
keep what is worth keeping, and then
with the breath of kindness blow the
rest away."
That is the abiding condition of
friends of Jesus. All necessity for re-
serve and hiding is gone, in the abso-
lute confidence born of the certainty of
high unselfish love. This laying bare
of each to each produces the true vision
of each to each. I shall thus be able to
recognize quickly all the excellencies in
the character of my friend which per-
81
Discipleship
chance other persons may be slow to
discover. He will see with clearest
vision the points of my shortcoming
and failure. Love is never blind, and
we shall know each other more deeply
and truly in that life of mutual love,
than it is possible for man to know man
by careful calculation or closest critical
observation. It has been said that
*' Love will stand at the door and
knock long after self-conscious dignity
has fallen asleep " which is only another
way of expressing Paul's great word
" Love suffereth long and is kind," and
because this is true the clear vision of
friendship ever makes demands on
eager, consecrated service. The good
recognized will be developed by fellow-
ghip, and where that good is costing my
friend much sacrifice and suffering, by
encouragement and fidelity. The short-
coming will be matter concerning which
the friend will mourn and pray in
secret, and of which he will speak in
such tones of tender love, that his
brother will be won to the higher sur-
render which ever means victory and
advancement. So together, and by the
62
The Disciple as a Friend
reciprocity of this holy comradeship,
there will be a building of each other
up, and a several growth in grace.
There is no higher or more wonderful
description of the possibilities of true
friendship in Jesus than that contained
in Paul's words to the Romans (xii. 15)
" Rejoice with them that rejoice ; weep
with them that weep." That is true
sympathy, and perfect sympathy be-
tween two is friendship. The word
sympathy has too long been robbed of
its glory by the narrowing interpreta-
tion which has considered it only as the
power " to weep with them that weep."
That is the smaller and easier part of
true sympathy. Sympathy is the power
that projects life outside the circle of
personality and shares the life of an-
other, feeling the thrill of the other's
joy, and the pain of the other's woe.
That can only be realized when the
friendship is in Jesus. There it can be,
and is. Is my friend in trouble, in dif-
ficulty, in temptation ? I am his com-
panion still, and the sorrow, the per-
plexity, the anguish are miue also.
Leave him now he has fallen "^ Irapos-
83
Discipleship
sible. When lie fell, I fell, and I shall
not feel erect again until he has made
even that fall a " stepping-stone to
higher things." Is my friend in joy, in
prosperity, in victory ? I am yet with
him, and the rapture, the success, the
triumph are mine because they are his.
Be jealous of his promotion ? Again
impossible. If he rises so do I, and all
his advancement is my greatest prog-
ress, for we are one.
Blessed is the man that hath such a
friend. It is impossible to have many.
I do not believe that it is the Divine
ideal that we should. It is question-
able whether any person, apart from
the higher realm of relationship, ever
has more than one. Such friendship
cannot be separated. Oceans and con-
tinents may divide. The mutual love
laughs at these, and in daily service,
prayer, and meditation, each is still
with the other, and thinks, and plans,
and works under the old influences.
This friendship knows nothing of con-
ventionality's little axioms, but abides
in the great realm of love, and does
things strange to the outside beholder.
84
The Disciple as a Friend
Such friendship cannot be broken.
Death is but a pause, wherein the one
hears from the great silence the old
voice, and feels drawing him thither,
the old love, and the other waits in the
splendors of that silence, with the Lord,
for the coming of the fellow — whose
song will add to heaven^s music.
Friendship is always beautiful, but the
friendship of disciples, based upon the
law of affinity, and conditioned and
consummated in Christ, is peerless.
VIII
THE DISCIPLE AT WOEK FOR THE
MASTER
Thoa Shalt tell Me in the glory
All that thou hast done
Setting forth alone : returning
Not alone.
Thou shalt bring the ransomed with thee,
They with songs shall come
As the golden sheaves of harvest,
Gathered home.
—T.P,
This is preeminently the " fussy " age.
Every one must be doing something.
Nothing more clearly reveals the spirit
of the age than the contrast between
the attitude of the thought of men to-
ward work now, and say, fifty years
ago. Then the busiest endeavored to
make it appear that they did nothing.
To-day the laziest are most eager for
their friends to think of them as over-
worked. Personally, taking the largest
outlook, I think this is a decided im-
provement, for it is an approximation
8f
The Disciple at Work
to the Pauline ideal that a man must
work or starve. It has touched the
Church however, and there has wrouglit
a great deal of mischief, if some good.
There never was such a day of organ-
izations, and meetings, and societies.
Why, the alphabet is nearly exhausted
in giving signs that stand for societies.
We preachers are in danger of be-
wilderment as we give out notices con-
cerning Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., I. B,
K. A., P. S. A., P. M. E., Y. P. S. C.
E., S. S. U., and so on. Now, let no un-
kind word be said of any branch of
service. All the honest and consecrated
work represented by these very letters
I have quoted, we welcome with de-
light and thank God for. Yet this
very multiplication of work has in it an
element of danger, and one of the
perilous sides to it has been the setting
of unsanctified and even unconverted
persons to work. Side by side with
this demand for workers has come a re-
bound from that view of a " vocation "
which culminated in priestism, and the
fitness of a caste only for holy service.
As is so often the case, the rebound has
87
Disclpleship
gone beyond proper limits. We have
rightly contended for the rights of all
believers to familiarity with the things
of God, and freedom to serve. We
have wrongly extended to those outside
the discipieship the opportunity of help-
ing in the work of the Master. This
has been to their detriment, giving
them a sense of security to which they
had no right, and it has also been to
the serious injury of the work itself.
We must return to first principles.
Personal relation to Christ is vocation
for service. Apart from it, there can
be none. On that occasion, when the
crowds, having come by sea to Caper-
naum " Seeking Jesus " asked Him
*' What must we do that we may work
the works of God ? " He said, " This
is the work of God, that ye believe on
Him whom He hath sent " (John vi.
24-29). Of that saying Dr. Westcott
writes, " This simple formula contains
the complete solution of the relation of
faith and works. Faith is the life of
works ; works are the necessity of
faith."
It cannot be too strongly insisted
The Disciple at Work
upon, or too frequently urged, that they,
and they only, who are disciples of
Jesus, are called to, and fitted for, fel-
lowship with Him in the great work to
which He is pledged. If I am a dis-
ciple, I am perforce a worker, for the
new life which creates ray personal dis-
cipleship is the very life of Christ —
compassionate, mighty, victorious. If
I am not a disciple, I cannot do the
work of God, for I am devoid of that
life which alone is the Divine compas-
sion for man, and the Divine energy for
accomplishing the purposes of God.
So much being granted, and the view
gained, that the disciple at work for the
Master is really the Master working
through the disciple — that is, that there
is oneness, we may now proceed to
consider the aim, the methods, the
strength, and the issue of the disciple's
work by a contemplation of the Mas-
ter's.
1. Christ makes a great statement in
John ix. 4. " We must work the
works of Him that sent Me." This
" We " of the revised version teaches
us that Christ identifies us with Him-
89
Discipleship
self in His work, and we shall best un-
derstand the force of these words by
gaining a clear understanding of their
setting. Take the paragraph chapters
-viii. aud ix. In chapter viii. 1-11 we
have the account of Christ's dealing
with the woman taken in adultery, in
chapter ix. 6 and on, that of His giving
sight to the blind man. Now, examine
the part that intervenes. The opening
statement (viii. 12) and the closing (ix.
6) are identical. Growing out of that
statement in chapter viii. we have a
long controversy on inherited privileges
and Divine Sonship. In chapter ix.
the disciple's question is in the same
realm, though it deals with the other
side, that of inherited sin. Christ dis-
misses their speculations, and announces
the fact of His work, and proceeds to
illustrate it by another example, which
at once answers their quibbling and
reveals that work. This blind man is,
as every man is, a revelation of human
condition, and an opportunity for the
display of the work of God. What,
then, is the work of God? The
remedying of the limitation and evil
90
The Disciple at Work
that is in the world, and the restoration
of the natural — that is, the Divine pur-
pose. The illustration is simple. The
underlying revelation is sublime. The
Diviue rest of Genesis ii. 1, 2, was
broken by man's sin. From that point
God has been at work. " My Father
worketh even until now and I work "
(John v. 17). This is not a small thing.
It grasps all in its compass. It cost all
in its effort. The Cross is the supreme
expression of that Divine work, and
that is only understood when it is seen
as the eternal force by which man's
ruin and limitation are overtaken, and
the first Divine ideal for humanity
realized. In the disciples of Jesus
there moves that great life that works
with ceaseless and unconquerable en-
ergy. "Thy will be done. Thy king-
dom come," is the disciple's prayer ; it
is also the aim of all his life and work.
In the home, the business, the civic re-
lation, national life, the Church, we are
*' workers together with Him," opening
blind eyes, loosing prisoners, healing
humanity's wounds, toiling ever on to-
ward the morning without clouds, in
91
Discipleship
which God will rest in the accomplish-
ment of His purposes.
2. If our aim is identical with that
of the Master, it follows necessarily
that our methods must be identical also.
By reading carefully and in conjunction
John V. 17-19, and xiv. 10, we find that
all His works and words were done and
spoken, not on His own initiative, but
on the will of the Father. That is to
say, Jesus not only worked toward the
same great consummation as His Father,
but along the same lines, by the same
methods. How very wonderful are
these words " The Son can do nothing
of Himself, but what He seeth the
Father doing." " The words that I say
unto you I speak not from myself.'*
From this position the enemy directly
and indirectly perpetually sought to
allure Him, and, thanks be to God, uni-
formly and absolutely failed. In the
wilderness He declined the kingdoms
of this world, even though for these He
had come, on any condition, or by any
method save the divinely marked. It
is just here where the evil of the
" mixed multitudes " in our churches is
92
The Disciple at Work
manifest. The true disciple must be
as particular about the methods of work
as about the final issue ; but so many
have caught some faint idea of the
Divine intention, and now are prepared
to adopt any method that seems pol-
itic and likely to achieve the end.
And so the things that are worldly,
sensual, devilish, are being pressed into
the service of the churches — choirs of
professionals, who give performances
for their own glory, entertainments
which approach as nearly as possible to
the world ; bazaars, too often another
name for illicit trading. The devil's
most prolific move is the secularizing
of the things of God, tempting men to
seek to possess the kingdoms of Christ
by falling down and worshipping him.
The disciple worker will not expect to
find any ''near cuts" to success, any
more than his Master did, but will
travel ever by the way of the Cross of
Offence and the Resurrection of Power.
The methods for the disciple are three-
fold, as it seems to me.
I. The example of the life, in all its
details loyal to the Master ;
93
Discipleship
II. The influence exerted by the
character that is perpetually growing
|n grace, by unbroken attention to the
lessons of the Teacher, and the resultant
incarnation of those lessons;
III. The specific urging of the claims
.of Christ upon others, so that no day
passes in which an effort is not made to
win a soul for Christ, by word spoken,
,or written, or intercession with God.
3. The next point is a remarkable
.one, and we approach it reverently, yet
without hesitation. The strength in
which the Master accomplished His
■work is that by which we are to ac-
■complish ours. It is worthy of special
note that Luke, whose second treatise
is that which gives us the account of
.the coming of the Holy Ghost, and of
His acts through the first disciples,
very clearly marks for us our Lord's
dependence upon that same Spirit. In
Luke iv. 1, we see Him returning from
Jordan *'full of the Holy Spirit, and
'' led by the Spirit in the wilderness."
From that wilderness experience He
.enters upon the work of His public
^ministry, and in Luke iv. 14, we are
94
The Disciple at Work
told He did so " In the power of the
Spirit;" and in tlie passage He read in
the synagogue at Nazareth, He claims
the anointing of the Spirit for service
(Luke iv. 18). So, full of the Spirit
" He lived, and led of the Spirit " He
went fearlessly through all the great
conflicts of human nature, and "anoint-
ed of the Spirit " He undertook all
specific service. Before leaving His
disciples, in those wonderful discourses
John has recorded, He promised them
that His Spirit should cuu.e " to be with
them forever " (John xiv. 16), and
that His mission should be to reveal
to them the person and teaching of
the Master (John xvi. 13, 14). Thus,
then, the disciple goes forth to his work
in the self-same strength as that in
which the Master Himself went forth
to His. The only understanding I can
ever have of the purpose of God comes
by the revealing of the Holy Spirit, and
the only force by which I can accom-
plish anything is that of the self-same
Spirit. What a glorious reserve of
power there is in the Spirit filled life,
and the Spirit-anointed worker. All
95
Discipleship
life becomes part of the great Divine
activity. Daily duties can no longer be
drudgery, for every commonplace con-
tribution to the day's necessities is
done, for the hour present, and for the
^ges to come, toward that great con*
.summation for which God works.
►Special forms of service have new
meaning and new delight; for no word
inspired of the Spirit returns void, and
no work energized by Him is lost or
worthless.
4. Of the issue of our work, few
words need be said. Again there is
identity with Christ. *'If we endure,
we shall also reign with him " (II. Tim.
ii. 12). If Christ ultimately fails, then
the piece of work you did yesterday
and are doing to-day will perish. If
He accomplish all His great purpose,
then nothing I have done toward His
end, by His methods, in His strength,
can be lost. There will be a gracious
and searching day of testing, when
Love will burn up the hay, the wood,
the stubble, and purify, to the bright-
ness of the very home of God, the gold
and silver and precious stones.
96
The Disciple at Work
Let us, then, do better work by liv-
ing nearer to the King, and know more
fully the privilege and joy of service
by a completer abandonment to Him.
IX
THE DISCIPLE IN SORROW
Yet sweeter even now to see Thy Face,
To find Thee now ray rest
My sorrow comforted in Thine embrace
And soothed upon Thy breast,
Lord there to weep is better than the joy
Of all the sons of men ;
For there I know the love without alloy
I cannot lose again.
— H. Suso.
Sorrow is the common heritage of
humanity. In all ages, in all lands,
under all conditions, man feels pain,
and suffers anguish. Is sorrow, then, a
part of the original Divine intention
for man ? Does God take pleasure in
human suffering in itself? Assuredly
not. He who created without sorrow,
will also wipe all tears away. And yet
to-day sorrow is a Divine provision hav-
ing an infinite meaning and exerting a
marvellous influence. What Cowper
sang is certainly true ;
9.
The Disciple in Sorrow
" The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown ;
No trav'ller ever reached that blest abode,
Who found not thorns and briars on his road."
Sorrow came in the track of sin, not
the companion and ally thereof but
God's quick messenger, a sense of loss,
opening at once the door back to the
heart and home of His love. Sorrow is
a deep sense of loss, the consciousness
of lack, the natural experience of a
God-forsaken life. Had there been no
dethronement of the King, there could
have been no sorrow, for the whole
being, still and quiet in Him, could
have had no sense of loss. When man
committed the act of high treason, by
listening to a voice that called in ques-
tion the love and wisdom of the Divine
authority, there sprang up in that in-
stance the first sense of lust, ennui,
hunger, and sorrow, and it took the
form of a desire to know what God had
not revealed. And when, following
that desire, instead of returning then
and there to allegiance man passed
through the door, seeking liberty, he
found himself in a great darkling void,
iU5m
DIscipleship
without God, and yet possessed of a
nature making demands perpetually
that neither he himself nor any other
could satisfy.
Sorrow, then, is the result of sin, but
it is the benevolent, tender, purposeful
messenger of the Eternal Love, who
cannot see His offspring lose all, with-
out causing within them this sense of
loss, and so ever by that means attract-
ing them homeward. Carry out that
view of sorrow, and see how wondrously
the person and work of Jesus agree
thereto. The prophet, long before He
came, spoke of Him, "A man of sor-
rows, and acquainted with grief," and
further declared '•' Surely He hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows."
(Is. liii. 3, 4). Turning from that
sacred forthtelling of the purpose of the
Messiah's coming to the historical ac-
count of His life, and work, I find the
very heart and centre of it reached
when on Calvary's Cross He cried from
the darkness into which He had passed,
seeking that which was lost, *^My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? "
That is the greatest sorrow of all, there
100
The Disciple in Sorrow
m the person of Christ all humanity^s
sorrow and anguish and tears are
centred. That is the expression of all
agony. Beyond that there is no sor-
row. And that is also the great cry of
humanity's sin; God dethroned by
man; man forsaken by God. Beyond
that there is nothing. So He bore our
griefs and carried our sorrows in that
awful hour when He was wounded for
our transgressions and bruised for our
iniquities. There all the world's sin is
borne and its sorrow felt. After that —
silence. Surely a stillness in heaven,
on earth, in hell, — and then " it is fin-
ished " from His lips, and He, the con-
queror, died by ^''laying down " His life.
Sin is put away, and sorrow is recalled.
Righteousness commences her new
reign and joy follows in her wake, the
glorious possibilities of humanity are
opened up, for Christ has lived and
died, and lives forever now, and is a
priest " after the power of an endless
life" (Heb. vii. 16).
Yet while in that Cross there was the
rediscovery of God to man, and the
rending of the veil for man's return,
101
Discipleship
and all of healing provided, the appro-
priation of the purchased possession is,
in the wisdom of God, secured by proc-
esses that cover centuries in man's
measurement, and so sin is still here,
and sorrow must therefore remain also.
What, then, is the disciple's relation
thereto ?
1. To the disciple the realm of
sorrow has become circumscribed, and
that in a large measure. The great
sorrows of humanity are personal and
self-centred. Some loss experienced,
some injury inflicted, some disappoint-
ment realized, these are the common
causes of sorrow. In proportion as self
is subdued and God enthroned in the
life, this class of sorrows becomes ob-
solete. The soul finds its all in God in-
creasingly, and so is able not merely to
be resigned but to rejoice in denials as
well as in blessings bestowed. Very
slow we may be, even in the school of
Jesus, but this is the growing experi-
ence of those who are learning of Him
and are submissive to His teaching;
and witnesses, to the fact that God fills
all the gaps, and brings the heart into
102
The Disciple in Sorrow
perfect rest, are not wanting, neither
are they few. "The heart at leisure
from itself" is a heart that has so
learned of Jesus as to rejoice in exactly
the circumstances that in the old life
caused the keenest sense of sorrow.
2. From this is seen the Mission of
Sorrow. It is ever a disciplinary force,
drawing the heart more and more
toward God, as it creates a sense of the
hollowness and uncertainty of all that
has been held most dear. How won-
drously this is manifest in the life of
the believer. Take two persons — one
whose will is rebellious and whose heart
is unregenerate, the other a disciple of
Jesus — and let them pass through iden-
tical experiences of bereavement, afflic-
tion, failure, and disappointment. In
the one case the spirit becomes embit-
tered and callous and the character de-
generates; in the other gentleness, love,
tenderness are the results, and the very
face catches a new glory and beauty.
The one defiantly faces sorrow, and
looking upon God's messenger as an
enemy attempts to destroy or banish it,,
and so sinks into hardness and hatred j
103
Discipleship
the other is drawn to the heart of God,
and finds the very pain is but God's
fire for the destruction of dross, and so
rises into that ineffable sweetness and
love which is such a revelation of the
power of the God of Love.
3. What, then, is the secret of this
effect of sorrow upon the life of the dis-
ciple? The companionship of Jesus.
He who touched the inner heart of all
the world's agony is ever present, un-
derstanding the very deep meaning of
that pain, the absence of God, knowing
that every form of anguish was ex-
pressed in that great cry on the Cross,
and then revealing Himself to whatever
form of the need is present. In your
darkest anguish, O believing heart, what
healed you? Was it not that Christ
said to you *' I am just what you have
lost, and infinitely more " ? and as you
said, *'Yes, my Lord, Thou art," did
not all the horizon kindle with a new
light, and all the pain as quietly ease as
by the magic of His own touch?
4. Looking back over our sorrows
since we entered the school of Jesus,
there is yet another truth to be recog-
104
The Disciple in Sorrow
nized, and that is the fact of their trans-
mutation. When the Master was about
to leave His earliest disciples, He said
to them of the keenest pain of the time
— the thought of His departure — ''Your
sorrow shall be turned into joy " (John
xvi. 20). And was it not so ? They
learned in the coming of the Paraclete
how expedient it was for them that He
should go away, and so His going their
greatest grief — became to them, in His
ascension and the consequent coming
of Himself, into nearer, dearer relation
by the indwelling Spirit, their greatest
joy. In that promise was there not a
statement of the whole philosophy of
pain to a believing, trusting heart ? How
perpetually sorrow is turned into joy.
Mark — not the sorrow removed, and so
joy coming, but the sorrow itself be-
coming the joy. Have we not all had
such experiences? Can we not look
back and see that some of the hourf
that throbbed with agony were the most
blessed of all the hours of life ? That
personal affliction, that grave, that
blighting disappointment, that lonely
hour of desolation, would you omit it
105
Discipleship
from life's experience if you could?
No, a thousand times, no. That afflic-
tion was my door to strength, that grave
the prelude to resurrection power, that
disappointment my finding His appoint-
ment, that lonely hour the one in which
I found Jesus only. And so I come
to understand that sorrow means my
ignorance, my limitation, and by faith
I learn to triumph even in the hour of
darkness, having learned that God's
hand arranges warp and woof, and the
perfect pattern He knoweth, and for the
unfolding of that I wait and sing.
5. The disciple enters a new realm
of sorrow. Union with Christ means a
measure of "the fellowship of His suf-
ferings" (Phil. iii. 10). "A heart at
leisure from itself " is a heart to "soothe
and sympathize." Free from the blight
of sorrow, seeing my sorrows as His
choicest gifts and leaving them ever
with Him, I come to understand the
awful needs of humanity, and I go to
His cross to be in some measure a sharer
of His suffering for others. Out of that
compassion comes all service that really
does anything for humanity. There
106
The Disciple in Sorrow
may be much activity in the self-life,
but it is little worth. lu the death of
self on the cross, the new pain begins,
and so long as I remain here, the sorrow
and sin of the world must press on my
heart, for His life now holds and gov-
erns it.
And what is the end? Through all
earth's pain and anguish what is com-
ing? Let a seer of the old and new
covenants each answer: —
Isaiah : " The ransomed of the Lord
shall return, and come with singing
unto Zion ; and everlasting joy shall
be upon their heads : they sliall obtain
gladness and joy, and sorrow and sigh-
ing shall flee away " (Is. xxxv. 10).
John : " And He shall wipe away
every tear from their eyes ; and death
shall be no more ; neither shall there be
mourning nor crying, nor pain any
more : the first things are passed away."
Hallelujah. Amen.
107
THE DISCIPLE IN JOY
My heart is resting, O my God,
I will give thanks and sing;
My heart is at the secret source
Of every precious thing.
— Anna L. Waring.
When Eliphaz the Temanite said
" Man is born unto trouble as the sparks
fly upward " (Job v. 7) he gave utter-
ance to a conclusion arrived at after
careful observation of the common lot
of man ; he did not declare the birth to
trouble to be an essential of human na-
ture per se. Under existing conditions
man is so born, but that is contrary to
the original purpose of God for Him.
The Divine intention is the joy, the
happiness, of all men. Sorrow is an
interpolation in the Divine plan, neces-
sary and beneficent as we saw in our
last chapter. Joy is the normal condi-
tion of man, God's highest work. Sad
and sorrowful as the earth is to-day in
108
The Disciple in Joy
all lands and climes, man's capacity for
joy is evinced in the fact that, in the
vast majority of lives, there are more
days of happiness than sorrow. In the
face of overwhelming disaster in all the
regions of his being, man has set him
self with indomitable courage to wrest
happiness in some form out of his cir-
cumstances, and to cry, "Begone dull
care." Much of the so-called happi-
ness of men is inexpressibly sad, and
poor, and sinful, yet the fact remains
that the great bulk of humanity has set
itself to seek for happiness, and in that
fact lies the proof that for joy man was
at first constructed. Every form of en-
joyment that man has devised for him-
self is his attempt to reconstruct out
of hopeless wreckage and ruin the
glorious past. Heartbreaking is the
picture, yet it is a lurid and appalling
testimony to the magnificent possibili-
ties of his being. The man with the
muckrake, missing the true vision of
glory and brightness in the crown held
out to him, does nevertheless witness to
his capacity for the crown by his dili-
gent attempt to gather the glitter of a
109
Dlsclpleship
straw, the color of purple, the shimmer
of tinsel. Following the argument that
sorrow is a sense of loss, we say that
joy is the true condition of God's hu-
manity, and that as sorrow entered with
the loss of the sense of God, so joy is
restored as man finds God.
1. The discij)le restored to com-
munion with God, is restored to the
place of joy. That is a remarkable
word which the apostle uses in writing
to Timothy (I. Tim. i. 11) '*The blessed
God." It might correctly be translated
" The happy God." It marks for us a
great fact in the character of God. He
is blessed for evermore, happy in the
very essential of His nature. Creation
complete. He saw it "very good ; " and
the ** rest " of God was not recuperation
after toil, but complacency, satisfaction,
happiness in His work. The inspired
seers of the past saw Him, and, though
the surroundings of His throne were to
them, clouds and darkness, their con-
ception of Him was ever that of glory,
beauty, strength, love, peace, happi-
ness. When man fell, that very hap-
piness of God was the movement toward
110
The Disciple in Joy
man's recovery. Read the closing words
of Zephaniah's prophecy (iii. 14-20),
especially noting the seventeenth verse:
*' He will rejoice over thee with joy ;
lie will rest in His love ; He will
JOY OVER THEE WITH SINGING." What
words can be more beautifully ex-
pressive than these of His blessed-
ness. When Jesus, the express image
of the Father came, He gave us in many
a graphic picture the same conception.
The glad Father, the rejoicing shep-
herd, the happy woman, all teach the
same truth. In the great charta of the
kingdom, He pronounces upon His dis-
ciples the same character. " Blessed "
here may be as correctly rendered
" Happy," and so those who are His to-
day, are restored to living communion
with the *' Happy God " and are thus
themselves brought into the place where
it becomes possible for them to obey the
apostolic word, " Rejoice in the Lord
alway : again I will say Rejoice " (Phil,
iv. 4).
All human joy is tarnished by the
presence of the element of fear and
dread. Man cannot escape from the
111
Discipleship
deepest facts of his own nature, and
therefore in the midst of every form of
pleasure there comes the unnamable,
disturbing element of fear and appre-
hension. This may be concisely stated
by saying, no man has power to per-
fectly enjoy the present who cannot
look the future in the face with assur-
ance. So long as the undiscoverable
hour of death haunts the consciousness
of man with a vague terror, every glad-
ness may be blighted in a moment by
the recurrence of thoughts which man
would fain banish. I do not speak of
low forms of enjoyment, but of high.
Love, friendship, home, nature, art,
music, all suggest to the unforgiven
soul the awful possibility of cessation,
and then the unknown to-morrow be-
comes the tarnish on all gold, the blight
on all fruit, the spectre of all hours.
The disciple in union with Christ has
found the solution of all this mystery.
He is at peace with the end, and so is
free for the true enjoyment of the
" now." Because " to live is Christ,"
" to die is gain," and because " to die is
gain " life is worth living, for the spectre
112
The Disciple in Joy
has been transformed into the gentle
angel who stands ever at the portal of
larger and more generous life.
2. Now, how does this effect the life
of the disciple ? This twofold fact, of
communion with the blessed God and
the consequent casting out of fear from
the life, introduces into all pure human
joy the element which perfects the same.
The greatest of earth's joy is in earth's
love. The ties of home and family, the
communion of friend and lover, how im-
measurably are tliese jo3^s intensified to
the believer. The union of two in mar-
riage, based upon the law of supreme
affection between two, when these are
both united in Christ to God, how holy,
and restful, and satisfying to the heart.
The presence in the house of children,
when they are recognized as gifts of the
Eternal Love, to be nurtured for the
King, what glorious and genial sunshine
it is. The growth, and development,
and success of these when the King's
laws are obeyed, what pure and full joy
they bring. And then the other great
avenues of enjoyment — nature in her
thousand varying moods, art in its
113
Discipleship
wondrous possibilities, music in its in-
terpretation of pure thought and high
enthusiasm, how the disciple enters all
because in his relationship to Christ he
holds the mystic key which admits him
to their inner secrets. Surely every-
where and at all times the anointed
soul can see and hear, and touch, with
keenness and precision such as is un-
known apart from Christ. Never allow
the enemy to suggest to you that dis-
cipleship is the limitation of joy. It is
the one condition of human life to-day
that opens every door of human delight
and permits man to walk in the splendid
spaces perfectly at home in the happi-
ness of the " Happy God."
3. The greatness of this joy overtakes
and overwhelms all the sorrows that re-
main to us. " How many children have
you?" asked one of a Christian father.
Hear the reply, " Seven — five live with
me, and two with Jesus." Surely this
was rejoicing in sorrow. Did he not
miss the prattle of the tongues now si-
lent, and the patter of the little feet?
Assuredly he did from his own home,
but he heard them still by faith in the
114
The Disciple in Joy
palace home of God, and the joy of
possessing some treasure of his very
own there, was more than compensa-
tion. Tlie joy of sorrow lies, moreover,
in the fact that it preludes and prepares
for the joy beyond. Of our beloved
Lord it is said " Who for the joy tha
was set before Him endured the Cross,
despising the shame," and that marks
our glad pathway through all the dis-
ciplinary sorrow of probationary days.
To us on every sorrow falls the light of
the joy beyond, and that not merely as
compensation, but as result. So, while
we are ofttimes *' sorrowful" we are
"yet always rejoicing."
4. In our last study we spoke of the
new sorrow that comes to the disciple
in communion with Christ — viz : — that
of sympathy with all the sin, and sor-
row of suffering humanity. Now, we
must also recognize the new joy that
springs out of service. To me it is
difficult to speak or write of that joy.
Have you ever led one soul to Christ?
Then you know more than all words
can teach you of the essence of real joy.
To tell the evangel, to pray with the
115
Discipleship
seeker, to travail in birth for souls, to
see the breaking of the light of God, to
find another passing to His kingdom,
this is life and joj indeed. Paul, the
great missionary, the man who so won-
drously, in those days of suffering and
peril, laid his whole being upon the
altar of His Master's cross for other's
blessing, could think of no greater joy
in heaven than that of souls newborn
through his toil and suffering. *' For
what is our hope, or joy, or crown of
rejoicing? Are not even ye before our
Lord Jesus at His coming? For ye are
our glory and our joy " (I. Thess. ii.
19, 20). And surely that joy is the
Divine joy. It is over a redeemed peo-
ple that God "joys with singing," and
it is in the accomplishment of the great
purposes of the Eternal Love, that the
Master " shall see of the travail of His
eoul, and be satisfied."
116
XI
THE DISCIPLE GOING HOME
Soon the whole,
Like a parched scroll,
Shall before my amazed sight uproll,
And, without a screen,
At one burst be seen
The Presence wherein I have ever been.
— Thomas Whytehead.
When Bernard of Cluuy wrote
" Brief life is here our portion "
as the opening words of his great hymn,
he penned a fact that is an abiding con-
sciousness with men of all ages and
every clime. The glory of the hope,
and certainty of the faith which charac-
terize that hymn, are beyond the ex-
perience of thousands, but that first
statement finds an affirmative echo in
every heart, whenever and wherever
sung. That life is passing, the number
of our appointed years becoming smaller,
by a perfectly quiet and orderly, yet
117
Discipleship
irrevocable and absolutely unalterable
sequence, every person knows full well.
That the last year, the last break of
day, the last moment will come ; and
moreover, that not a single one among
the millions of the race now moving on
toward the end can tell the year or day
or hour of that end, these are solemn
and self-evident truths.
That end, called death, is at once
the greatest certainty, and the greatest
mystery of all. To the consciousness
of the natural man there is no escape
from it, and yet around it has gathered,
for the thinkers of all ages, and the
teachers of all systems, and for those
also, the many, who will not think, and
who seek no teachers, a great darkness
and mystery, so that man naturally
shrinks from it, and by every means in
his power seeks to put off the day which
is the last. Yet, as man strives to do
this he knows how futile is the strife,
and so, by a sort of common consent,
unwritten and yet binding, man is en-
deavoring by a forced forgetfulness to
banish death and its awful dread. What
thcD s the attitude of the disciple to-
lls
The Disciple Going Home
ward this fact of the onward movement
of this present life toward an end ?
1. The answer may be very briefly
stated first as a matter of fact. The
disciple dares contemplate that end ; no
longer shrinking from thought of it, he
calmly faces it, questions it, smiles at
it, and standing in its presence con-
fronts it without fear or fainting. More
than that, the disciple thus facing the
end, from that very contemplation seems
to catch a new radiance as of a light
that never was on land or sea, his gaze
into what the world has ever thought
of as dark and mysterious, giving to his
eye a brightness which tells of visions
that add their lustre and their hope to
all the experiences of the passing hour,
so that to him, the contemplation of the
end, instead of shadowing all the pleas-
ures of the moment, fills the darkest
day with light, and makes every hour
of sorrow an occasion of rejoicing. To
the truth of this the experience of the
Master Himself, and the writers of the
New Testament, and the followers of
Jesus in each successive century bear
unequivocal testimony. Let us confine
119
Discipleship
ourselves to the experience of the
Lord, and the testimony of New Testa-
ment writers. The writer of the letter
to the Hebrews (xii. 2) gives us an in-
spired and remarkable vision of our
Lord's view of the end of His human
life. He saw the " Cross " and " Shame,'*
and "endured" the one, ''despising"
the other, for the "Joy" that was set
before Him. Of course this has a much
wider application, but it certainly con-
tains this revelation of our Master's
view of the end of His life, — the dark-
est and most mysterious end of all — •
that what bulked most largely on His
vision was a " Joy " that lit the dark-
ness, and negatived the " shame."
The experience of the writers of the
New Testament, as revealed in their
writings, is on the same plane. Paul's
writings abound with such concrptions.
"I reckon that the sufferings . . . .
are not worthy to be compared with
the glory . . . ." (Romans viii. 18).
" To die is gain " (Phil. i. 21). " . . . .
My departure is come .... hence-
forth .... a crown " (H. Tim. iv. 6, 7,
8). These passages should of course
120
The Disciple Going Home
be read in their entirety, and they are
but examples of many others, all reveal-
ing the same truth. Peter, looking
forward, speaks of "A living hope
.... an inheritance incorruptible, and
undefiled, and that fadeth not avray"
(I. Peter i. 3-9). James, lights up the
darkness of trying circumstances with
the thought of the end, saying *'Be
patient .... until the coming of the
Lord" (v. T). John, exulting in pres-
ent blessedness, views the end, and
from the vision gathers new hope and
purifying power " Beloved, now are we
children of God .... we shall be like
Him " (I. John iii. 2). Jude sees be-
yond the present period of growth one
of perfection " Him that is able ....
to set you before the presence of His
glory, without blemish " (Verse 24).
To this strong, courageous, and victo-
rious outlook of the earliest saints may
be added the testimony of the disciples
of all the ages.
2. So far we have made a statement
only. Let us now endeavor to under-
stand this attitude of the Lord and His
disciples. There are two statements of
121
Discipleship
the New Testament, which are so re-
markable on account of their clear un-
mistakable meaning, that we will con-
sider them only, as being sufficient to
account for all we have said. The first
is contained in the words of Jesus Him-
self to Martha at the grave of Lazarus
(John xi. 26). Let us in all simplicity
and straightforwardness read these
words " Whosoever .... believeth in
Me SHALL NEVER DIE." The Other is
a statement by Paul (IL Tim. i. 10).
" . . . . Our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who
ABOLISHED DEATH."
Nothing can be simpler or more force-
ful. Our Lord, speaking to Martha
meant just what the words convey in
our translation, that to the soul believ-
ing on Him there is no dying. Death
is not to that soul what it seems to
humanity at large. The life that one
already lives, is the very life of God
and eternity, and there is no death.
That is precisely the thought of Paul.
The word " abolished " literally means
rendered entirely useless, robbed of its
power to act.
3. How has this been brought about,
122
The Disciple Going Home
and how are the disciples of Jesus able
to appropriate the stupendous miracle
as an experience ? On the day of Pen-
tecost, Peter declared the fact of the
resurrection of Jesus, not only to be
the work of God, but to have been an
absolute necessity by virtue of what
Jesus was in Himself (Acts ii. 24).
" Whom God raised up, having loosed
the pangs of death, because it was not
POSSIBLE THAT He SHOULD BE HOLDEN
OF IT." So much for the reason of the
Master's own view of the future. Now
read Heb. ii. 14, 16. "Since then the
children are sharers in flesh and blood,
He also Himself in like manner partook
of the same ; that through death He
might bring to nought him that had the
power of death, that is the devil ; and
might deliver all them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage." There we see
how through His death He has given us
victory over death, and taken from us
its fear. Before He left His disciples
He made that great declaration, " Be-
cause I live, ye shall live also " (John
xiv. 19). Therefore we are brought
123
Disclpleship
into the place of His victorious life,
through the overcomiDg of His victo-
rious death.
If then He has abolished death, what
now remains? It is still certain that
these probationary days will end, this
life of limitation and testing come to a
conclusion, all this changing scene pass
away, and still it is true that the end is
not known as to its time. Wherein do
we differ then, as disciples of Jesus,
from the crowd ? In this, that instead
of death being the end, He Himself
stands waiting for us and ever approaches
us, and whether w^e are among the
number of those " that are alive, that
are left unto the coming of the Lord,'*
or " them that are fallen asleep," still
the end of the present is Himself, for
to sleep is just to be *' absent from the
body, at home with the Lord," not to
die, and to remain to His coming is just
to " meet the Lord in the air." So
when evening comes to the disciple
and he turns his back upon the glories
of the western sky and faces the east,
it is not cold, and dark, and cheerless,
but full of light, for the sun fills all the
124
The Disciple Going Home
horizon, and so to the child of trust
*' There is no night."
Disciples then are not called upon to
prepare for death, but for Him, and
that hope purifies, refines, illumines all
the hours with the radiance of the
Eternal Day. We cannot fear death,
then, for to us all is changed. The end
has become the beginning, mystery is
transformed into the vestibule of reve-
lation, rest from labor is entry upon
highest work, and at eventide there is
the light of the Eternal morning in
which is the disciple's home.
125
XII
THE DISCIPLE IN GLORY
Bear me on thy rapid wing
Everlasting Spirit,
Where the choirs of angels sing
And the saints inherit.
— Anon.
How little we know, comparatively,
of the hereafter. " Life and incorrup-
tion have been brought to light" in the
Gospel of Jesus, and death has been
transformed from a foe to a friend, but
the Revelation is characterized by its
silence with regard to the future rather
than by its declarations. It is as though
God would not draw men toward
righteousness either by threatened pun-
ishment, or promised reward. Enough,
however, has been said to give us to
understand the terrors of being lost,
and the blessedness of being saved.
Of the occupation of the disciple of
Jesus in that life that lies beyond,
126
The Disciple in Glory
more has been said than appears on the
surface. There is one passage of Scrip-
ture which is constantly being half-
quoted, or quoted from the Old Testa-
ment, when surely we should quote it
with Paul's expository word. Let us
examine this. (Is. Ixiv. 4). "For
since the beginning of the world, men
have not heard, nor perceived by the
ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God,
beside Thee, what He hath prepared for
him that waiteth for Him." Now to
whatever that may refer, Paul writing
to the Corinthians (I. ii. 9, 10) dis-
tinctly goes on to say that these hidden
things are revealed to us by the Spirit,
and yet this quotation is used almost
invariably to prove that we can know
nothing of the future of the blessed.
Again, let closer attention be given to
these passages and the correct and much
more beautiful rendering of the Revised
Version be accepted, and it will at
once be discovered that there is no
reference whatever either by Isaiah, or
by Paul's use of Isaiah's words to the
future life. Both are referring to the
wonders of the wonder-working God iu
127
Discipleship
the progress of events whicli men could
not perceive or hear, save by the spirit
of God, who revealed them in due time
to those who waited for Him. That
men did not see the working of God
in history, witness the attitude of the
disciples of Jesus, until the Holy Spirit
came and illuminated that history.
This is the broad principle of the
teaching of the passages, and it may be
applied to the case now under consid-
eration. To the casual, unenlightened
reader the Scripture says very little of
the future. To the Spirit-taught it
says far more than we can comprehend,
and the purpose of this chapter is to
indicate the lines of that teaching
rather than to attempt to exhaust the
great theme. In our first ten divisions
we have dealt with the disciple in his
probationary life. That is by far, and
of necessity, the smaller part of his ex-
istence. Probation is of the greatest
importance, but it ever presupposes
something far more important stretch-
ing out beyond, and the great fact of
discipleship is, that it is a process of
preparation of one who is not a citizen
128
The Disciple in Glory
of the earth, of one whose home and
place of service lie out beyond the
shadows that seem to bound the vision
to-day. In our last chapter we have
seen him meeting the Master at the end
of probation. May we now close this
study by very reverently looking within
the veil, so far as it has been lifted, at
the occupation and final destiny of
those, who through all this gracious
discipline have been so patiently trained
by the greatest of all, nay, the only
Teacher of humanity.
1. The abolishing of death makes it
perfectly certain that there can be no
unconscious gap in the existence of the
believer. What we have too constantly
spoken of as death, by virtue of its be-
ing the meeting of the disciple and his
Lord — without the limitations of mater-
ial trammels, which are always in some
sense a clog to the development of the
Spirit life — in that state where faith is
lost in sight, and hope in full fruition
dies, becomes clearer, fuller conscious-
ness. The phrases of the New Testa-
ment which describe that state give us
most suggestive and valuable teaching
I2d
Discipleship
concerning it. Let us take two of
these, both from the writings of Paul.
I. II. Cor. V. 8. " Absent from the
body .... at home with the Lord.'*
The use of the phrase *' at home," in-
stead of the word " present " as in the
authorized version, is necessary to
ensure consistency of translation for
the whole passage, as it is the same
word translated " at home " in verse 6.
What a perfect and beautiful thought
of the first consciousness of the dis-
ciple in that larger life. " At home."
The word analyzed conveys the idea of
being among one's own people, and that
is the true thought. We move in that
gracious transition into the condition
of being perfectly at rest in the Lord's
presence. In all the high spiritual as-
pects of our life, we have been strang-
ers here. There we shall be " at home."
Here our relationships have been those
of sojourners in tents, strangers, and
our sense of the Lord's presence,
blessed as it has been, compared to
what it will be then, has been partial,
limited. There we shall fit in to all the
conditions toward which He has led us
130
The Disciple in Glory
and for which He has trained us, and so
there we shall first fully comprehend
the meaning of much of the training of
to-day. Oh the luxury of it. Only
those who have been away from their
earthly homes for awhile know how in-
tensely sweet is the sense of being '* at
home " again. The one atmosphere in
which there is freedom from the sense
of disquietude and unrest. And yet
more marvellous is the grace of it. The
" at home " just beyond the shadows is
" with the Lord." That I, who feared
and shunned, and alas, slighted and
contemned Him, am at last to be ** at
home " with Him passes all telling in
its evidence of His great grace.
II. Phil. i. 23. '' To depart, and be
with Christ." This word to depart is
undoubtedly used here in the sense of
loosing a ship from its moorings, and so
Tennyson repeated the Pauline con-
ception when he wrote,
" And let there be no moaning of the bar
When I put out to sea,
And may there be no sadness of farewell
When I embark."
What then is this embarking and un-
131
Discipleship
loosing ? Do I drift into unconscious,
ness for a season? No, I am with
Christ.
' ' I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar."
Note the immediateness of it. Dr.
Moule says, " Not a space, but a mathe-
matical line, divides the state of faith
this side death from the state of sight
that side." So then the first conscious-
ness of the disciple in the New Life is
that of the Master in clear and un-
clouded vision.
2. What then is the present condition
and occupation of those who have de-
parted ? Between the time of their
leaving this scene, and the morning of
the Resurrection there is an interval.
It is an interval of incompleteness, for
as yet they have not received their
Resurrection bodies. We have already
seen that this interval is spent in a
closer connection with, and clearer
vision of Christ. The nature of the oc-
cupation is the subject of our considera-
tion now. In the closing words of
Hebrews xi. (verses 39, 40), a great
132
The Disciple in Glory
principle is declared with regard to
those who have gone before. Its ap-
plication by the writer of this Epistle is
to that great company of the heroes
and heroines of faith of whom he has
been speaking. It may also safely be
applied to all those who in this Chris-
tian Era have fallen on sleep or will do
so. " That apart from us they should
not be made perfect." In this applica-
tion of the passage we are to under-
stand that the perfecting of the dis-
ciples will only be when the Lord
gathers to Himself the whole company
of them. The occupation therefore of
those who thus wait, in blessedness, for
the end of the age, and the gathering
into the glory of the whole Church of
Christ may be gathered by a line of
reasoning to the correctness of which
Scripture itself bears testimony.
They are closer to Christ, and there-
fore their understanding of His work
and service must be much clearer. This
better knowledge must necessarily pro-
duce a deeper sympathy. The first
propulsion of the Christ-life in the
soul of the regenerate on earth was a
133
Discipleship
movement of compassion toward the
souls for whom He died, and an act of
service on their behalf in some definite
form or other. Now that their posses*
sion by Christ is so much more com-
plete, it surely follows that their love
for those whom He so wondrously loves,
is far more intense. Can we possibly
think of them as having this deeper
love and yet being inactive ? Assuredly
not. The things that interest and oc-
cupy Him, must interest and occupy
them supremely ; and so we can only
think of them as raised into a region of
higher service within the same great
redemptive circle in which they moved
while still on the earth. I give it as
my firm conviction that all our loved
ones gone before, are serving the cause
of the work and purpose of God among
men in a better way than they ever did
while sojourners here below. Does not
this view light up for us many dark
events in our own lives ? Those, whom
God has wondrously blessed here, and
then suddenly called away just when
we were feeling they could not be
spared, have not ceased their work as we
134
The Disciple in Glory
thought, but have been promoted to
some higher place and work. To this
view of the occupation of the departed
that word of (Rev. xiv. 13) agrees.
*' That they may rest from their labors ;
for their works follow with them." The
immediate application is to the number
of the saints who will suffer martyrdom
in a subsequent era, but the truth has
a present application as well, and the
inner teaching may perhaps best be
gathered by a paraphrase, the result of
a careful analysis of the words actually
used : *' They rest from that toil which
is painful and reduces the strength, but
their works, their activities, accompany
them." That is to say their activity
does not cease, but only that form of it
which brings weariness and suffering,
and so we think of beloved servants of
God, singers, teachers, preachers, sud-
denly, and to all human seeming pre-
maturely removed from earth, no longer
as beyond the province of redemptive
service, but as more than ever fully oc-
cupied in clearer light and fuller oppor-
tunity.
3. This condition of incompleteness,
135
Discipleship
for them and for us, will end when
** The Lord Himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, and the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of
God : and the dead in Christ shall rise
first ; then we that are alive, that are
left, shall together with them be caught
up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in
the air : and so shall we ever be with
the Lord " (I. Thess. iv. 16, 17). It is
there that the Church will be gathered
into one complete and conscious whole,
" Some from earth, from glory some,
Severed only Till He Come."
and so He will "present the Church to
Himself a glorious Church, not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing'*
(Eph. V. 27).
That will be an event of the utmost
importance as we shall now see in its
bearing on the future.
4. That surely is finality. No, every-
thing lies beyond that in the vocation
of the Church. All to that point in
the history of individual disciples and
of the whole Church has been prepar-
atory. It is then that the Church is
136
The Disciple in Glory
ready to begin her great mission in the
purpose and counsel of God. The let-
ter to the Ephesians is specially occu-
pied in dealing with this great and
stupendous fact. The first three chap-
ters deal with the vocation in itself,
and the remainder make application of
the fact of that calling to all the de-
tailed life of the believer in view
thereof, while yet in this place of prep-
aration and discipline. Let us then in
concluding this study on Discipleship,
very reverently read the words in the
first three chapters of that Epistle
which light up for us the great future.
(Eph, i. 18). In this verse occurs a
phrase full of suggestiveness, and lead-
ing to the statements which follow.
** The riches of the glory of His inher-
itance in the Saints." That our inher-
itance is in Him, it is easy for us to un-
derstand, but we are at once arrested
by the statement that He has an inher-
itance in us. And ye that is tlie fact.
God has an inheritance in His people,
and Paul's prayer is that these Ephesian
Christians may have " the eyes of their
heart enlightened, that they may know
137
Discipleship
what is the hope of His calling, what
the riches of the glory of His inherit-
ance in the Saints, and what the ex-
ceeding greatness of His power to us-
ward who believe." The " calling " of
God is the vocation of the Church. As
the Church fulfils that vocation, God
will enter into His inheritance in her.
This will be realized by the power
"which He wrought in Christ when He
raised Him from the dead." In the
paragraphs which follow, Paul proceeds
to deal with the final purpose of God,
and with the process by which this will
be achieved. We are now interested
only in that final purpose, in the fulfill-
ing of which God will Himself possess
His inheritance in His people, and so
we take the three verses which de-
clare it.
(Eph. ii. 7). " That in the ages to
come He might shew the exceeding
riches of His grace in kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus." The phrase "in
the ages to come " has reference to the
ages of the Eternal future. What
future dispensations there may be, and
what the movement of the ages none
138
The Disciple in Glory
can tell but God Himself. Whatever
these may be, the Church is to be the
medium of shewing forth therein " the
riches of His grace." *' When those
ages are to learn the love of God's
heart they are to do so by the testi-
mony borne by the ransomed Church
to His '* kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus." Our vocation then contains
within it the mission of shewing to the
ages yet unborn that love of God which
He has exhibited to us in Jesus.
(Eph. iii. 10.) " . . . . Now unto the
principalities and the powers in the
heavenly places might be made known
through the Church the manifold wis-
dom of God." This reveals another
phase of vocation. The Church is to
reveal to the unfallen intelligences, the
principalities and powers of the heaven-
lies the manifold wisdom of God. These
shining ones whose glories so far exceed
anything of which we have drea';_^ed,
whose powers of comprehension are so
wondrous, will only know through the
revelation of the Church, in all its ful-
ness the manifold wisdom of God.
(Eph. iii. 21.) " Unto Him be glory in
139
Discipleship
the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all
generations forever and ever." Briefly
stated then, the vocation of the Church,
beyond all the preparation of this life,
beyond that intermediate state in which
some now are, in that time when the
Church shall be completed and com-
plete, is to reveal the grace and wisdom
of God to the beings of other dwelling
places, the high unfallen ones of the
heavenlies, and that not to one age only,
but to the ages of the ages as they are
known only to the mind of God. In
all eternity that great " Now " of God
embracing our " past " and " future,"
there has been no such proof of the
grace of His heart and the wisdom of
His workings as that of the ransoming
and uplifting in spotless purity of fallen
man, and those so ransomed and up-
lifted are to be the witnesses to the
great future of intelligence concerning
wondrous and overwhelming truths.
What an enormous range of possibility
does this view of the Church's future
open up before our vision. Our finite
surroundings make it impossible for us
to comprehend all the infinite spaces
140
The Disciple in Glory
that appear only to us as blue sky, or
darkling night. What worlds are there,
what high forms of pure spirits, what
spaces still bej^ond, and what yet deeper
spheres of habitable places. Thought
is bewildered at the daring of its own
flight. Then what changes and move-
ments among all these in the procession
of the ages. Remember that to these
worlds and these beings and these ages
we are to be the messengers of the grace
and wisdom and glory of God. In that
view the future loses its sense of dread,
and one looks on to the new opportuni-
ties for art, and music, and poetry, and
above all perchance of preaching, that
are coming to the ransomed ones when
the discipline of time is merged into the
fitness of eternity, with reverent and
holy desire.
Some one may say that is pure imag-
ining. Well it certainly is imagination
well within the limit of the possibilities
of these words of the apostle, who had
been caught up into the third heaven
and had seen things unutterable. Mark
how he closes this section.
(Eph. iii. 20,21.) " Now unto Him that
141
Discipleship
is able to do exceeding abundantly-
above all that we ask or think, accord-
ing to the power that worketh in us,
unto Him, be glory in the Church and
in Christ Jesus unto all generations for-
ever and ever."
So that the wildest flights of thought
are far short of the possibilities of what
God is able *'to do/'
This is but a faint glimpse then of
the glory of which Paul said " I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed to usward "
(Rom. viii. 18), but it is enough to turn
the heart of the disciple with fuller
purpose of consecration to that Beloved
One who with a perfect knowledge of
that future, too splendid yet for our
comprehension, is teaching and training
us ever with that in view.
How better can we close this contem-
plation of discipleship, in its beginning,
progress and consummation, than in the
words of Paul to these Ephesians (iv. 1).
*' I therefore .... beseech you to walk
worthy of the VOCATION wherewith ye
were called."
142
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